A Southwestern Turning
When we were visiting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in February, I got to know Rich Spellenberg, who is a fine woodturner as well as renowned botanist. Indeed, if I …
Mining Memories on Cyprus
My co-author John de Gruchy and I have sent off our book Sawdust and Soul to our publisher (to the “typesetter,” our editor said!). If all goes well it will …
Darkness and Light
We have suffered the loss and slow dying of friends and relatives in the last few months. Death has been smoking up our life like a prairie fire, inching close …
I Really Do
I once entered a poem in a contest and received in reply (a contest that actually gave feedback!) the comment “Don’t use made-up words.” Well, that was, I thought, the …
Looking for Muhammad
My writing has been completely taken up with completion of my woodworking and spirituality book project with my friend John de Gruchy, who lives near Cape Town. You’re going to …
From Magma to Table
This past Saturday I gathered with other poets and poetry lovers at Carl Sandburg’s old farm, Connemara, in Flat Rock, NC, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Jayne Ferrer’s website, …
Mothers Day Reverberations
Mother’s Day didn’t arise as a Hallmark card sentiment but has an earlier expression in an impassioned plea from Julia Ward Howe to unite women around the world in the …
Ruminations of a Seasoned Life
As Spring creeps northward, coaxing up the daffodils, forsythia, and redbud, I am back into routines after times of travel and our work at the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, which …
Desperados
After an arduous drive from Albuquerque to North Carolina in the wake of ice-storm Titan, our return from the long trip to Las Cruces found us face to face with …
Generations in Mesilla
They call it Old Mesilla – the tightly settled grid of one- and two-story adobe buildings gathered around the central plaza and its church. There is a “New Mesilla” stretching …
The Bells of San Albino
We are spending the month of February in the little town of Mesilla, adjacent to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mesilla (pronounced “Meh-SEE-yah”), which means “little table,” was formed shortly after …
Waiting in Desert
We lie in desert still silent parched waiting. The wind breathes upon the ocotilla like a harp. We sing.
Desert Reflections
The electronic world makes it easy to forget the real world expanses of this planet. We just completed a 2400-mile road trip from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to …
Who’s Your Imbongi?
I have long been interested in the South African tradition of the imbongi. The figure of this classic Xhosa “praise singer” accompanied my thoughts as Nelson Mandela returned to his …
Kings, Messiahs, and Mandela
After a couple of weeks devoted to moving my website to a new host, I am finally able to reflect with you on two events – one perennial and one …
A Tale of Two Capes
Last week Sylvia and I visited North Carolina’s Cape Fear region, the southern tip of the series of islands, shoals, and lagoons that form an elbow into the Atlantic, nudging …