When I Zoom meet with my poet friend Wendy we often share things we’ve read and take some time to write. The following is inspired from Ron Paggett’s poem “How to Be Perfect”, found in Collected Poems 2013. This line in particular sparked interest: Keep Your Windows Clean. Keep Your Windows Clean The view is… Read More
The light of August seeps into paper, weaves into the forest as vibrant as ignited confetti. A crow perches on a high cedar and calls into the air, half- song, half-scathing commentary. In the still heat of summer, memory simmers and shines: an oasis created out of worn books, crumpled letters, and tree forts swaying… Read More
Summer palette deepens. The road curves toward home, overgrown and dusty. Notebooks fill up like baskets full of dry and fragrant kindling. I watch as hummingbirds thrum by – feathered kinetic energy. Studying cloud wisps, I imagine myself reclining on a raft, bobbing through a distant August day. It is delightful to be in multiple… Read More
Reflections on a Pandemic Spring leading into Summer: “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley: In Search of America Opposites. In The Mahabharata there are many references to the pairing of opposites. Winter ends and spring begins. There are… Read More
Some words are steep. A cliff edge that dares the speaker to leap. Other words bubble to the surface when you cannot sleep. Or are found pressed like flowers between the pages in memory’s hefty book. Words can be spice or icing, a fortress wall that repels or a sound that entices. Wherever they come… Read More
“All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.” Ernest Hemingway Brimming with New Year’s resolutions, I find most of them have to with words. I continue to work on a novel that is nearly where it needs to be, on the illustrations and text of a… Read More
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” Andrew Wyeth The wind folded, ice creased leaves. Summer leftovers. Lingering green ripples beneath a spangling of chill stars. I savor this… Read More
“Suddenly the day was gone, night came out from under each tree and spread.” Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree A month of urgency: the tipping from fall into winter. The waxing of a moon. The chilling of air. I peer through a mental View Master at the vivid memories of Alaskan Halloweens: frosted in snow,… Read More
“But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.” ― Carl Sagan,The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark. “Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?” ― Walt Whitman Branches form an arcade. Spruce and… Read More
“I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.” ― Marilyn Monroe Two of the characters I am writing are falling in love.… Read More