A man in a long coat stands in a field on a narrow path surrounded by tall grasses yellowing in the late autumn sun. His shadow stretches and slants in front of him bending upward at the path’s edge. The sky is a shade of blue so rich and thick that it seems mismatched for…
Category: Writing
Mojo Risin’
Well, I just got into town about an hour agoTook a look around, see which way the wind blow…Motel money murder madnessLet’s change the mood from glad to sadness – “L.A. Woman” by The Doors I was up early this morning. The cat came in at about 3:30 and nudged me a dozen or so…
Riddles and Rabbit Holes: Goethe, Jazz, and Billy Collins
Last night, my mind was all horns punctuated by drums, fast hi-hat, and quickening bass. I was trying to read poetry and kept hearing the song “We Six” by Paul Chambers. I had to look the song up in my library to get the title. It’s fast and crazy and starts a little cacophonous before…
Winter Descending, Mid-November Night
The trees have lost their color and the mountains on the drive to and from work are mostly brown. In the mornings, there’s a still and quiet beauty to them – their soft rolling tops yawn in the shadows and light of the rising sun. But tonight, as I drove home, the sky felt serious…
More News at 11….
I begin this post wanting to justify the long silences between blog posts. I feel guilty – partially to those of you who, with some regularity, read what I have to say, but mostly to myself. Life gets busy. That should be an acceptable enough excuse. But for the past year, I’ve been trying to…
Writer’s Block (Sorta)
I think I’ve run out of things to say/write. I can feel myself slipping out of practice (writing). The weather has been fantastic here in Memphis, and so I’ve been spending more time outside. I’ve also started prepping for my move back to Pennsylvania. Today I submitted my change of address form to the post…
After the Cake and Everyone’s Gone Home
Tonight I was hired to edit another short blog story about online privacy. I’m mostly editing to make the language flow a little more naturally. My strengths as an editor (and writer) are in the musicality of language – stringing words together that fit and have a cadence. I am not the best technical editor…
Happy First Birthday
One year ago today, feeling a little overwhelmed by the changes in my life (the loss of an amazing relationship and about to really leave home for the first time in my life) I started this blog. Technically, I registered the name years before and started it one other time – but I let the…
Where Do I Go from Here?
I was an English major in college. I was an ok student. I didn’t do very well in the traditional literature classes: Shakespeare, Victorian Novel, British Literature, Colonial Literature, etc. I was a solid B/C student in those classes. Every once in a while I might surprise myself with an A or with a D….
Chewing the Cud
Cows are ruminant animals and must chew their food twice in order to digest it properly. They spend nearly eight hours of their day chewing their cud (food softened by saliva, swallowed, moistened by digestive fluids, and then “regurgitated” back up for a second round of chewing). Mentally, I can be a lot like a…
I Did It
A young boy stood below the first rung at the end of the monkey bars looking up. He’s big for his age. So many kids are. He might be eleven years old, a little over five feet tall and probably about a hundred-and-forty pounds. There are seven or eight wooden exercise stations dotting a half-mile…
Sending Smoke Signals Through the Fog
To say my writing, my attempts to write, my thinking, my attempts to think have been muddled these last few weeks would be an understatement. Clarity of thought and of purpose is elusive. I feel as though I’m sending smoke signals through the fog. Lying in bed, groggy and ignoring the cat, one of my…