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 …
Cyprus Log: Hellenic Mines
The office building of Hellenic Copper Mines, Ltd., is a serene oasis perched among the hills of broken ore at the top of the mountain of copper ore that is …
Cyprus Log: Skouriotissa
“Ah! La Iglesia!” A smile creased the stern face of the Paraguayan guard at the sentry post. In his hands he held my little album of pictures open to the …
Our Trip to Cyprus
From May 22 to June 1 Sylvia and I will be on a trip to Cyprus, the third-largest Mediterranean island, situated in the corner between Turkey and Syria. Like most …
On Poetry, Moravians, and Public Life
Last week I joined my friend Michael Beadle to present a few of our poems to a recently formed group concerned with the relation of art to faith. Called “ArtGroup,” …
Collaboration in Time and Space
Two events involving my son Eric coalesce to begin our new year. The first involves his trans-Atlantic collaboration with my god-daughter Anja Decke to put on a multi-lingual version of …
Beginning Again
In the past year my wife, Sylvia, has pulled back from her big artistic projects and gone back to the piano, which took a back seat to her other pursuits …
Peace, Poetry, and Cyprus
The past two weeks have been a departure from my usual routines of writing and woodworking, as I journeyed to research some family history at the old family home in …