TO WRITE - a verb and an outlook

We write as a way into experiment and story. It happens by annotating or emphasizing, changing scripts, composing tales, following crumbs, and depicting visions.

Writers follow an unseen energy - trending or not - to chronicle, stamp, engrave, and chart a path, often following a lead that unfolds in an unpredictable course for which there is no map.

Following lead, choosing word, and creating stories, writers cherish our cloud (family, tribe, and friends) while scribbling and embracing everything. We work to extract the good and treat bad mojo by savaging it with deadly rap and targeted curse.

Writing is the art of choice, and writers live or die by many small choices and a few big ones. It's the same with life, and when the writer chooses to walk the page they choose how to walk. They can choose to walk in beauty, exalt the hero, paint the scene, take up the courage to be, and articulate the notion of Thou in the other. By doing so, a writer is a change agent of design and creation.

Amid our work, we strive to hold our own, revere our project, jettison the critic, and accept what appears. Then we rinse, dry, and repeat until, with the help of others, a worthy story takes form on a page.

WHY I RIDE IN THE DGR = the backstory

I’ve paid attention to stylish clothing since my first job at K-Bliss Men’s Store in Menomonie when I was 16 and took a job arranged by my high school’s distributive education class. I learned from three experienced associates how to match a tie to a dress shirt, how to measure pant legs for tailoring, how to choose the correct size for suits and sport coats, and how to casually suggest accessories like cufflinks, cologne, a second tie, a new belt, or a pocket square.

I enjoyed the job and discovered the sales tactics they taught worked, and I became a good men’s clothing salesman. From the time of that job in high school, I paid some attention to my clothing style and occasionally read men’s fashion magazines at the library.

Many years later, my stylistic sensibilities were piqued when a friend commented about my motorcycle. “Greg, I’ve noticed that bikes are a lot like their owners,” I asked what she meant. “Your bike is sharp, clean, smart like you.” Her compliment charged my ego, and I began studying motorcycle and rider combinations. I realized her observation was accurate.

With an enthusiasm for motorcycling and voguish dress, it’s no surprise that I felt drawn to The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride (DGR), a motorcycle charity and awareness event with an eye on riding dapper. The DGR was founded in 2012 by Mark Hawwa in Sydney, Australia and has taken place around the world every year since then. Hawwa prefers not to take credit for the ride’s success but turns the focus back to its mission.… read more...

WHY I’m riding in the 13th annual Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride happening worldwide on May 18, 2025. Pledge my ride if you’d like to participate

See link to contribute on my ride-page below.

This will be the 5th year I’m riding in the DGR. With its fundraising focus on men’s health through a partnership with the MOVEMBER FOUNDATION, the DGR has raised over 50 million to support men’s research and treatment of men’s health issues, with a focus on two critically important issues in men’s health: prostate cancer and mental health (particularly suicide prevention).

This year’s event (happening on Sunday) has already registered 172 riders. Last year, Phoenix DGR participants raised over $20,000

Below I include a personal story on how I got started in this ride AND why it’s important to me. But for now, enjoy a few photos from around the world where the DGR will be happening in 121 major cities with dapper riders raising money for men’s health and having fun doing it. And again, if you are inclined, go to my link and drop a dime.

WHY THIS RIDE IS IMPORTANT TO ME AND WHY I RIDE IN THE DGR

I’ve paid attention to stylish clothing since my first job at K-Bliss Men’s fashion store when I was 16 and took a job set up by my high school’s distributive education class. I learned from three experienced associates how to match a tie to a dress shirt, how to measure pant legs for tailoring, how to choose the correct size for suits and sport coats, and how to casually suggest accessories like cufflinks, cologne, a second tie, a new belt, or a pocket square. I enjoyed the job and discovered the sales tactics they taught worked, and I became a good men’s clothing salesman.… read more...

Who Moved the Yoga Mat Thank you OM YOGA Magazine (UK)

https://www.ommagazine.com/who-moved-the-yoga-mat/

Who Moved the Yoga Mat

Along the way, yoga takes over and changes people. We bend, stretch, breathe deeply, and pose moves our bodies to more flexibility and efficiency, increased balance, bodily awareness, and a host of other well-documented physical benefits. Along the way, the mind improves too as we enter the land of enhanced concentration, improved relaxation, ease in letting go, and a heightened awareness of what’s important. A result of these differences is what yogis think of as medicine.

I’ve directly experienced yoga’s positive changes and improved flexibility and balance. They are specific and objective measures that bode well for my aging that I can easily demonstrate to anyone. The other aspects are subjective; I cannot qualitatively demonstrate the ability to remain calm in stressful situations, a willingness to let go, better awareness, or better decision making and discernment.

I’ve learned that yoga is not about ability or athleticism; it’s about an altered perspective to deeper awareness. Greater awareness is not something I’ve achieved and is not something I can put on a resume as a past job accomplishment. Greater awareness is not a marketable skill as it will not convince an employer that I’d be a good candidate for a managerial position; but when I hold up the mirror of self-awareness, it tells me that I am fluid and open to learn, to change, and therefore poised for personal and professional growth. That’s the kind of person I want for my manager.

But my practice, 13 years in the making, has directly impacted me. If yoga could speak, it would tell me that since I started yoga, my mindset is more agile, my way of looking at life has shifted, and my adaptation to change is fluid, including a move to a new state, new work, a new community, and new goals.

Hawaii, Yoga, and the Afterword

Ω Thirteen years ago my yoga song began on the island of Hawaii, the newest and southernmost rock in the Hawaiian archipelago. I watched Pele pour her passion in hand-to-hand combat with ocean waves in a torrent that rocked my reach and stretched my learning. My heated engagement with truth force took place in a salty mist on a luminous cloud where a sea rose & circled back in three steps: breath in purach-ah, breath hold kumbach-ah, and breath out rechakh-ah.

Midwest born & raised; I saw the ocean but didn’t recognize it. The ocean’s blue tabla rasa didn’t reflect my gaze or provide a visible boundry. Sans boundaries or witnesses to corroborate my existence, I wondered if I lived or passed and I found myself gazing to the ocean in steadfast longing, the way everyone sits on a Hawaiian beach. Day and night in Hawaii, tide after tide, a rising moon and setting sun animated dormant memories of the deep & charged life with a persistent, wavy exchange. If wolves lived in Hawaii, they would howl at each tide & sing songs while clawing black rocks to raise a fire and flow.

The Hawaiian Islands were born when elemental opposites met in a forceful, earthly dance: fire and water, soft and hard, sand and foam. Yogis call this a dance of sthira and sukha, steadiness balanced in ease. This balance in the energy of opposites meets in practice & steadfastly holds every yogi through serenity or tsunami. Hatha (competing force) speaks an open sesame to the divine comedy of life prompting an exploration of how we are at once stones and flesh, sphinx, cobra, a warrior, then evolving back to a child in repose.… read more...

Riding Worldwide in ‘The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride’

https://gfolk.me/GregoryOrmson288222

2024 video wrap-up from DGR here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DmDCBDfgG/

This is my reminder to everyone to ask the men you know to get a simple blood test to check their PSA. That blood draw can be a lifesaving event.

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride DGR is a worldwide fund raising and fun event with participation by people in over 100 countries riding motorcycles on the same day for the same cause. I’ve participated four times because its focus on men’s health issues is important.

Statistically, 75% of suicides are by men, and one in every 8 men will get prostate cancer, making it the number one cancer-causing death among men worldwide.

This charitable motorcycle event for owners of classic and vintage styled bikes will take place around the world on May 18. It will happen here in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona.

The DGR Ride, now in its 13th year, brings together over 500,000 classic and vintage motorcycles and well-dressed riders and has raised more than 54 million since its inception in 2012.

REASONS to ride are increased awareness – meaning to ask the men in your life to get their damn PSA checked now – and/or offer a donation to research and support for men’s health.

*MENTAL HEALTH* *SUICIDE PREVENTION*

*PROSTATE CANCER* *TESTICULAR CANCER*

The ride is sponsored in part by the following: MOVEMBER FOUNDATION, TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES, ELF, HEDON, QUAD LOCK, CMSNL, BRETT.

p.s., I don’t make a big deal out of the fundraising as is evident. Three hundred dollars in four rides isn’t much in the big scale of things, but it means that people are reading, are thinking about it, are donating in small amounts.

PORTLAND REVIEW Thank you.

Ghosts Are Full Here as the Hungry Half Moon Rises

PORTLAND REVIEW MARCH 2025 Prose, Poetry, and Art since 1956

And so am I, full with the imprints of time and memory. I am rich in soul, yet I’m hungry for more. It’s not a feast I want: I want what singer Sam Garrett wants, “More life, more blessings; more peace, more unity.” Through the years, I’ve discovered ghosts here in the ashes of people spread on the lake shore. By here, I mean “The Old-Style Place,” a cabin that has been in the family for fifty years. Rustic, well-built, no running water, no bathroom, just an outhouse.

In the spring, one chore involves cleaning the outhouse; this means removing snake skins, sweeping away mounds of spider webs, and mopping up dust. Many people would not like this place. Tonight, I note the silence and half-full Buck Moon, a cipher in the sky hiding behind branches of the large pines.

Honoring the remnants of life’s past is part of my yearly visit here, just as it was for those who left their relatives on the shore. Imprints remain from those who sat on the dock watching the western sun set over the lake. Many of them have passed on: my parents, a childhood friend, an uncle, a few aunts, grandparents, and the many others.

They’re all here. Tonight.

The evening moves at a slow summer pace, transitioning from dusk to dark when loons begin wailing and yodeling. The loon call has a mystical, otherworldly quality; I hear its echo all around this quiet lake and am convinced there is nothing else like it.

WE CANNOT FIND LOVE, IT IS NOT LOST

I hear the deep discordant murmurs, and they drive me back to source to recall oracles of love. I hear that love is the only attribute that yearns to, or can be, the fixative to our desert wandering. The proof, you ask? I have it.

A friend and scholar bringing me food when I was starving; admiration with a single word from poet and philosopher, shared space and love of another, smile from a friend, word from a daughter, touch from a son, steady hand cradling the child, guidance of mentor, embrace by heroes, invites from others, and true confessions held and honored by me from all of you. It’s never a me or we, but only love listening to the deep murmurs drowning the joy of our human catholic.

But I’m not done with the list of love, even when it was formed long before me: as in wins, losses, and sacrifices; simple advancements of care through votes for National Parks and roadways, science, medicine, education, well-engineered machines, and well-managed humanities.

I am accepting of this world, and its attendant vale of tears, as it’s all I have. But if love draws me to work, I will aim for truthfulness and audacity. Compelled by this double force for courage, I’ll treat this difficult and harrowing world as THOU, not as IT. That will define my acts not as searching for, but as being in the world and doing the right thing.

This is its own reward, and in my brief and grave traverse in this world, I will willfully participate (I would like to joyfully participate but that’s not always possible) and contribute my voice, along with my hands and feet, to confirm the rumor that love is still alive.

Melody of Mass Inspiration in Audiobook form, Yoga Song

AUDIO BOOK FOR YOUR YOGI: read what others are saying about Yoga Song

Yoga Song is a melody of mass inspiration proclaiming to every yogi that their breath is their sacred song and the soundtrack to their journey of transformation. The 21 vignettes in Yoga Song speak to both the skeptic and the true believer. To those who believe yoga’s therapeutic power, they confirm what they already know, that yoga is an augury of transformation and change. To the skeptic, these vignettes hold out a vision of what could happen to you when yoga turns ordinary moments into extraordinary and aligns each yogi with their breathcentric home.

Ormson narrates his story from insights born in the depths of self-discovery, sharing knowledge, understanding, and experience to inspire listeners. Every yoga song unfolds in the yogi as they become instruments of mind, spirit, emotion, energy, and consciousness. In chapters like, “Transforming the Emotional Body,” “Ritual Process and the Yogi’s New Song,” “Armor On, Armor Off: The Psychology of Yin Yoga,” and “Yogatecture: Blueprint of Transformation,” Ormson’s Yoga Song meets you in grace and opens the way for more grace.

Available in 30 platforms worldwide. Listen to your Audible copy by going here: https://www.audible.com/pd/Yoga-Song-Audiobook/B0C3JB7JK1…

What others say about Yoga Song

“I just read much of your book and I appreciate the connections you make and the questions you ask and there is much wisdom there. I appreciate all that you are bringing to your reader’s awareness, and I wish you all the very best with the book and with your continued yoga practice.” Renee Schettler, Editor in Chief, Yoga Journal.

A Lightening Strike into Evermore Renewal

IT’S THE CHINESE YEAR OF THE WOOD SNAKE AND I HAVE A SNAKE TALE TO TELL #690 on the way to 700

While studying at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi, I took a day trip to see The Red Fort, a 265-acre complex built in 1546 for the fifth Mughal Emperor of India. Afterward, I stopped at a roadside market to buy fresh mangoes or pineapples. Suddenly, a man with a wicker basket was in front of me. He lifted it to my face, removed the cover, and said, “You want?” as a cobra slowly rose and flexed its hood eight inches from my face.

I bent backward so fast that I thought I’d broken my back as the cobra rose slowly and subtly from the basket as if seeking opportunity, but it was also ready to strike at lightning speed had I posed a threat. A snake is vigilant and alert to opportunity or danger. Since then, I’ve thought about how that cobra moved to position itself right in front of my face.

A snake is a profound example of graceful subtlety as it converts the friction from sideways-to-sideways movement into energy that pushes their body forward, or upward. When the time is right, and after the snake grows, a wrinkled skin peels away making room for new growth.

There are frictions in all our lives, but the snake teaches how to convert friction into movement. Yoga tells us much the same, reminding us to move not in disease or stress or fast herky-jerky movements – like I did bending away from the snake – but with ease while remaining alert.

686 dare to be dope

Someone working below the surface wrote. “A life truly lived constantly burns away the veils of illusion, burns away what is no longer relevant, gradually reveals our truth.”

Yoga is an intensive course in illusion busting; its teachers and leaders are reformers and gurus. The best ones serve by pointing back to water birthing life, back to the child, back to the self, back to burning energy gathering in the depths, back to breath

Yoga takes us back to the essence – heart and breath – where its repetitive commencement enables inner courage to stand near the depth of self with clarity, without illusion, and with truth.

Its therapeutic and method are the same: mobilize prana, surrender cares, embody asana, settle the monkey mind

Yoga Song, p. 26… read more...

The Slow Burn of a Yogi’s Becoming: milestones to 700 Bikram yoga classes

Moved to a new center, fired by a disciplined pattern moment by heated moment, yoga fastens you into a deep curriculum of transformation where your spine moves as it was meant to move and your breath deepens your experience of life. When you step across a liminal threshold into a ritual container – like a yoga studio – and follow the guru (your breath) you drop into a deep well of wisdom.

Yoga invites you to dig deep; when you do, you’ll catch a glimpse of the periphery turned central. You’ll learn to inhabit contentment and put on garments of integrity and your life will feel like slow-motion shapeshifting in space. Bodily shape shifts happen in yoga, but meditation and movement also shift perspectives.

These psychosomatic shifts are yoga’s therapeutic, opening a gate between conscious and unconscious, laying bare a pathway for a return to the depth of self. In the self that is you – the same through all time – a bodily physiology meets a mental/spiritual soul where all space and time is negotiable. This meeting alters the nervous system by pausing the strategic and analytic mind while feeding the meditative mind. Yoga calls this a state of yogacittavrittiniroda.

Yoga’s activation of mind, body, and spirit doesn’t happen on the same timeline for everyone, but yoga’s journey will take each yogi to the ground of their being in a breathcentric and healing therapeutic, setting them on the way to their good things comin’ . . .

Yoga Song, the audiobook for your yogi

AUDIO BOOK FOR YOUR YOGI:

Yoga Song is a melody of mass inspiration proclaiming to every yogi that their breath is their sacred song and the soundtrack to their journey of transformation. The 21 vignettes in Yoga Song speak to both the skeptic and the true believer. To those who believe yoga’s therapeutic power, they confirm what they already know, that yoga is an augury of transformation and change. To the skeptic, these vignettes hold out a vision of what could happen to you when yoga turns ordinary moments into extraordinary and aligns each yogi with their breathcentric home.

Ormson narrates his story from insights born in the depths of self-discovery, sharing knowledge, understanding, and experience to inspire listeners. Every yoga song unfolds in the yogi as they become instruments of mind, spirit, emotion, energy, and consciousness. In chapters like, “Transforming the Emotional Body,” “Ritual Process and the Yogi’s New Song,” “Armor On, Armor Off: The Psychology of Yin Yoga,” and “Yogatecture: Blueprint of Transformation,” Ormson's Yoga Song meets you in grace and opens the way for more grace.



Available in 30 platforms worldwide. Listen to your Audible copy by going here: https://www.audible.com/pd/Yoga-Song-Audiobook/B0C3JB7JK1...



What others say about Yoga Song:



“I just read much of your book and I appreciate the connections you make and the questions you ask and there is much wisdom there. I appreciate all that you are bringing to your reader’s awareness, and I wish you all the very best with the book and with your continued yoga practice.” Renee Schettler, Editor in Chief, Yoga Journal.

“Your writing is very good and would be ideal if you ever fancy contributing on any regular basis, especially in our OM spirit section.”

Run to the Rez 2024 – story in December American Rider Magazine

Runnin’ Against The Wind

The 21st annual official Run to the Rez was held October 17-21 at the Apache Gold Casino and Resorts in San Carlos, Arizona. 2024 was the biggest yet, attracting 720 registered riders and many spectators and onlookers.

From the beginning, this motorcycle event has honored military veterans. Saturday’s program at Burdette Hall in San Carlos, following a group ride from the Apache Gold Casino to San Carlos, displays respect for all warriors and all Nations. As townspeople in San Carlos show up in large numbers to cheer bikers on, the throaty voice of rumbling bikes amplifies the celebration. Joining a large group of bikers on the way to Saturday morning’s program has always been fun, and townspeople enjoy bikers throwing candy to children as onlookers wave, take photos, and salute the riders.

“This run is all about honoring the veterans. It gets bigger and better every year,” said John Bush, one of the first few Geronimo Riders of that small group to hold a ride honoring Veterans nearly 30 years ago. Bush is still leading Run to the Rez but he said it’s not just him. “We couldn’t do it without the volunteers, and we had about 25.”

Burdette Hall’s program honored Gold Star Family members, and two veteran Grand Marshalls of the November 11 Veterans Day parade (Matt Hinton and Emerson Bayless). Each year the program honors a Viet Nam veteran, and this year it was combat veteran (Jonathan Victor). Honorees received lankets and donations along with a cash gift from the Rez Riders MC.… read more...

IN MEMORIAM: Tim Ormson

A sad caveat to my usual statement that I have three brothers is now amended: I have two living brothers.

Growing up, the sons of Dean and Dorothy Ormson were a terror to one another and their North Menomonie neighborhood. When people saw us coming, they hid the breakables.

Later in life, as our parents clamped down on us and attempted to control the high energy of four teens, they were no longer just Dean and Dorothy Ormson, but D and D, the masters of Dungeons and Dragons. They were good parents and used all the spells and tricks at their disposal to corral the four horsemen; most of the time, they got the upper hand.

I’m not sure if it was their deliberate strategy, but when my brothers were still in high school, D and D bought a small cabin on a remote lake in Northern Wisconsin. It was a place away from trouble and nervous neighbors.

The cabin had a name, “The Old Style Place,” and its logo was nailed to the shingle siding on an outfacing wall. But to us, it was always just ‘the cabin.’ “Watch out for the bear,” D and D said. It was another clever trick.

Many stories were started, told, and retold at the cabin, often lubricated by an ‘Old Style’ kind of leisure. These stories created and cemented an identity and loyalty among the Ormson boys that was unbreakable, even when strained by time and distance, death, illness, and accident.

It’s the happy times that keep us all going, and the cabin was a place where the howling crescendo and full-bodied belly laughter – louder than a train – signaled that story had been sufficiently told .… read more...

Riding to the Mysterious Pyramid-Tombs of Arizona’s Outback Story in November issue American Rider Magazine

Full text of story below.

The specter of pyramids rising from the desert seems more Egyptian than Arizonan, and yet for more than 100 years, three pyramids holding the bones of Arizona leaders, explorers, and visionaries have dotted Arizona’s landscape.

I jumped on my Harley Davidson Road King to explore the backstories of people buried within, including Arizona’s first Governor, George P. Hunt, Hi Jolly, a camel herder, and Arizona’s first Congressional Representative Charles D. Poston.

Riders yearning to see tilted Americana or cruise the roads less traveled will find pyramids of masonry, quartz, fieldstone, basalt, petrified wood, mortar, and even fragments from an early Indigenous American structure. Visiting the pyramids will take about 8 hours of riding time, but plan more as you’ll want to explore historical sites and check out the flavor of local shops and restaurants.

Arizona’s desert is a place fitter for camels than people. It’s hard on riders and bikes, requiring frequent breaks for water and gas. Realistically, plan two days and pack your walking shoes. Starting in Phoenix, my pyramid trifecta began on Interstate 10 by going west for 140 miles through Arizona’s Outback to Quartzsite, about 250 miles east of Los Angeles and 82 miles north of Yuma.

Quartzsite is dotted with RV parks catering to explorers and bikers strolling the streets and sidewalks of Quartzsite with dreams, wanderlust, and a thirst for adventure. The same characteristics brought Hi Jolly from Greece to Arizona in 1857.

Hadji Ali, as he was known in his native Syria, was recruited to train U.S.… read more...

The Black Box of America

First published in Oddball Magazine, November 20, 2024

No one missed that country
Men were soft, angry, and violent
Life was brutal and unforgiving
Pretentious and vacuous

Decisions and mutations were cut
in candle-lit back rooms, women were victims
They grabbed what they wanted
Fooled by the same illusion driving men, CONTROL

In apocalyptic bunkers
Dark physicians sang Odes to depression
Men were sheep and folded quickly
Not crying, but telling

Terrifying stories of bad things
Children were frightened and dogs were wild
No one cared about their neighbor
Everyone pretended at everything

The winner’s faces were tan, they lifted weights
Arenas were filled with men and women
Fighting women and men
Everything broke except the glass ceiling

Yuppies kept on building, kept sailing
Went on painting their ceilings
White, of course,
Ignorantly marched toward the future

They cheered the New Year
Hell, everyone cheered the New Year
And drove ATV’s and big boats
Rednecks toasted Monster Trucks as they mashed tiny Japanese cars

Christians decorated Christmas trees in suburban homes
To shots of Irish Crème or Asti
They drank while listening to strains of Bing Crosby’s
White Christmas on their stereo

They made yellow popcorn strings and dutifully attached them to the Green branches.
A ritual ‘round a tree,’ but nobody knew why
There were no ritual elders, there was no ritual wisdom
There was no embodiment of grace

After New Year’s celebrations and narcissistic resolutions
And the dark, wasted days of another empty year,
They awoke bored, helpless, angry at mothers and fathers
Sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, children and in-laws

The population chugged bourbon in the afternoon
And on vacation, they counted numbers in their bankbooks
Children were confused, scared, frozen
Occasionally they trusted a teacher

Once they trusted a priest, just once
But in time, their trust was betrayed
Their faces, tight and alarmed
They suffered daily with headaches and stomachaches

Kids starved for attention
But they got dollar bills
Parents screamed at them
Hurt and eating hot dogs

A 21st Century Recipe For Disaster:
Take a young man and put him in a high-powered car.… read more...

The Black Box of America, a poem by Gregory Ormson

This poem and image was originally published November 20, 2024 by Oddball Magazine. Editors calling it “a monster piece.”

The Black Box of America

Few people called a spade a spade
before the country went up in flames.
-Anon