Eulogy
Twelve years without Philip Seymour Hoffman
Tales from an all-day photoshoot in North Hollywood. The best poetry compilation in awhile. New tune that's just the best. Hopes. Fears. And the rest.
This month, we’re trying to live honestly, no matter how much we miss pretending
"My father’s responsibility was to make sure I was okay, not to make me feel okay, because nothing made me feel okay, especially not the things that I thought would."
God for the tone deaf. Thich Nhat Hanh. More emotional sobriety lessons to last a lifetime.
"It seems like Smoking Is Back from what I can gather from the youngish celebrities whose names I am no longer capable of retaining."
How to sleep (or not), part two.
Emotional sobriety at the end of the world. Thomas Merton. Maggie Smith poem because why not. People to rally behind.
Our readers write in and tell us how they go to bed each night.
“I used to be a bit of a cocky jerk and judgmental asshole, but there’s nothing like a twenty-year heroin habit to knock some of the snot nose out of you.”
A new prompt for this month. Buddhism Megablast! Pema/Kornfield. More Ram Dass.
Maggie Smith is this month’s TSB Poet Laureate.
A bookseller recommends a novel about suicide.
On personal growth. Fav poem about the current apocalypse. Tolstoy in a pinch. Depresh Mode.
Part Two of our January 2026 (!) check-ins.
TSB Check-Ins
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New year, new check-ins.
It's resolution, baby. Jenny Odell. Alan Watts. Jim Harrison . And David Duchovny.
To be sober or something sober-ish in 2026.
The Best Days of 2025, as told by Small Bow readers
The art of comparing and despairing. Check-In prompts. Louise Glück.
“I have let go of many things but wonder what fears remain. What do I hold on to for protection that is actually imprisoning me?”
A writing prompt to help you reflect.
Ben Gaffaney on time, escaping.
The most popular essays from a year that definitely happened, and is, I promise you, almost over.
