Welcome to O'Keeffe Woodworks

Thank you all for subscribing to my erratic and meager writings on Substack. I do this for fun and to hone my amateur craft, and hopefully, from time-to-time, to inspire.

I do not have a writing discipline. Rather, I write when I get inspired. There can be yawning gaps of time between posts. I subscribe to others who are disciplined and daily. I’m happy with my loping canter.

When I started on Substack, I added quite a number of pieces. Substack is not great at categorizing a library of work. It’s oriented to most recent posts. But my older stuff is there if you are interested. Alternatively, everything I have published lives at my website okeeffewodworks.com and is organized topically.

My name is Geoffrey Shōun McDonnell O’Keeffe. Geoff is my given name from my folks. I’ve had to spell and explain that my whole life. Citing Chaucer usually fails. Shōun is my Zen name. I am a Dharma Holder in the White Plum lineage of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi. McDonnell is my original surname rooted in Northern Ireland. O’Keeffe is a new surname we took in 1980 when my son was born. Georgia was the inspiration. I end up having to explain all four names.

I’m 71, married, with three adult kids and three grandkids, spread from the San Francisco Bay to Massachusetts. I work full time as an executive director of a non-profit, and practice with my local Zen center in Boulder, Colorado. My wife and I live in the mountains above 7,000 on five acres. Pray for rain.

The rest perhaps you can glean from what I write.

I have written some short stories, poems, haiku, political polemic, reviews, and humor. But I tend to gravitate naturally to short creative essay forms and memoir. Perhaps ruminating on my life is what this phase is about.

I would enjoy if this group became conversational among us. I like and thrive on community. I invite you to comment and engage anytime.

Join me.