Winesburg, Ohio might be the most haunting book I’ve read this year. A nice surprise, considering that I last read it 30 years ago and remembered only that it contained vivid sketches of quirky people. But it is, of course, much more than that. The “quirkiness” turns out to be the peculiarities of people who […]

three R’s (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic) three points in a good landing Three Signs of Being in Buddhism (impermanence, suffering, absence of soul) four seasons four classical elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) four states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) four humors of Hippocrates (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, blood) four temperaments of Hippocrates (sanguine, choleric, […]

“My Heart is Like a Zoo” – children’s book by Michael Hall “My Heart is Like a River” – song by Rebecca Lavelle “My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water’d shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a […]

“As for the wellsprings of wonderment, they run deep. The quiet mind, the youthful heart, the perceptive eye, the racing blood – these conflow to produce wonder.” – E.B. White, The Points of My Compass “Solitude. Where does its value lie? For in solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, […]

…and, of course, the other topic dear to the heart of poets: bang bone belly-bump booly-dog boozle buff the floor do bouncy-bounce do a bit of hard for a bit of soft make carnal acquaintance cavault do the conjugal act consummate coot perform the culbatizing exercise do the four-legged frolic frick frigg do ficky-fick do […]

Yeats or maybe Auden or perhaps Pound (probably all three) said that the only subjects worthy of poetry are sex and death. Thus, in honor of those great poets, a list to draw on: depart expire croak keel over kick off bite the dust pass on pass away perish succumb answer the final summons answer […]

““… Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Russian parties, Circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St John’s Wood, parties in flats and studios and houses and ships and hotels and night clubs, in windmills and swimming-baths, tea parties at school where […]

Things the Consumer Society Thinks You Should Own (based upon advertisements in a recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly): – a stone from Hadrian’s Wall – a hood ornament from a Mercedez-Benz – a Blackberry – Bose Quiet Comfort 2 Acoustic Noise Canceling Headphones – a clarinet – Junghams Apollo Mega Multi Frequency Atomic Watch […]

For a writer, of course, it’s a necessary tool. For many years I’ve kept full-sized spiral notebooks as idea banks – where I jot random thoughts, dreams, rough drafts, quotes from my reading, miscellaneous observations, overheard conversations, phrases that have become stuck in my head, arcane information of all kinds – anything I consider noteworthy. […]

Last week Glenn Wolff and I posed as poster children for an upcoming campaign by the Grand Traverse Conservation District to raise awareness about the beautiful and fragile Boardman River. We spent a pleasant couple hours in the evening fishing on the upper river, just above Ranch Rudolph, while photographer Andy Wakeman shot us casting […]