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 …
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 …
Abiding in Hope
For some years I have been involved in circle conversations in my Methodist church about ways we as a congregation and as a global church might welcome ALL people and …
The Learning Curve
You’re never too old to learn something. In the midst of more sober reflections (meaning of life, planetary destruction, state of American politics…), it’s good to focus on the simpler …
Two Experiences of Words
Twice a week this summer I go to our nearby community center to read to three children as part of their summer enrichment program. All are from Hispanic families. Their …
Precious Cargo: Creation Flower
When Sylvia and I were planning our recent visit to South Africa, a garden committee at nearby Lake Junaluska Retreat and Conference Center asked if we might select, purchase, and …
Protected: TURNINGS: POEMS OF TRANSFORMATION
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Mountains, Men, Mines and Minerals
We have just returned from six weeks in the Western Cape of South Africa and ten days exploring central Namibia, its neighbor to the north. While it is the people …
Zebras, Robots, and Homer
After a five-year absence we have returned to our beloved Cape Town, land of the humped zebra. No it’s not a cross between a dromedary and a zebra. But it …
Titanic Revelations
Sometimes we don’t know where certain messages come from as we muse, fingering some words to give our intuitions substance. I think this poem comes from the haunting reverberations of …
Earth Gasping
On October 6 I gathered with other writers and avid readers at Grateful Steps Publishers Bookstore in Asheville, NC, to celebrate the appearance of another issue of Fresh, a literary …
The Mesabi
Minnesota’s Mesabi Range is historically the largest deposit of iron ore in the world. Arcing across the northeastern part of the state, it has been delivering iron ore to America’s …
Lefkaritiki
When we returned from Cyprus we got out the old tablecloth my grandmother had bought there ninety years ago and admired its intricate lacework. It had new depth and meaning …
Cyprus Antiquities and Art
One of the things that has fueled our long interest in visiting Cyprus is the collection of glass and pottery that my grandparents brought back with them and that has …
Reconciling Past and Future in Cyprus
Our American friend Pippa Vanderstar had put us in touch with Avo Mangoian, one of Cyprus’s leading photographers, who has a store in the old city of Nicosia not far …