That November Day
That November day a robin heading south struck the window full force flying at the tree in the glass fell still upon the leafy deck. When I went out to …
How Many More?
How many children more must we sacrifice to Great God Gun? How many more must die to feed the greed of Smith and Wesson, Remington, and …
Remembering Jim Fowler
My dear friend of fifty years, James W. Fowler III, died on October 16 after a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease that lasted over 12 years. Jim was famous for his …
Craft Between You and Me
There’s a connection between woodworking and writing. One of them is the attention to craft. I am presently making a long-overdue desk for my son Eric, who has been using …
Sawdust and Soul
Over the past fifteen years I have carried on a lively conversation about woodworking with my good friend John de Gruchy—he in South Africa’s Western Cape, I in the mountains …
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 …
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 …