• building bridges

    One of the ideas that continues to intrigue and haunt me is that most of the world lives their lives without knowing or knowing of me and they don’t miss me either. I even posted a poem about it called “Spokane.” This morning, I’m sitting in Foster’s Market and Café in Durham, which has been…

  • cdl

    Yesterday was our Schnauzer Lola’s seventh birthday and my brother’s forty-ninth. (I suppose that makes them the same age.) Today, my friend Doug is fifty years old. By coincidence, today also marks my four hundred and fiftieth post since beginning this blog on December 27, 2005. Eliot said we measure our life in coffee spoons;…

  • fall

    Our burning bushis just startingto singe aroundthe edges.Before longwithout smokeor fire, the leaveswill blaze brilliantlywithout burning upand fall to the earth. We talk aboutcolors, yet namethis seasonfor the letting go,the breeze-ridedown from lifeinto death. How can it beso energizingto see what wasonce verdantand vibrantflame and die? I try to listen.I want to hearwhat the leavesare…

  • red dirt girl

    On the way home from church to go to work, I heard the end of this interview with Emmylou Harris on NPR. She has a new boxed set out of rare tracks and unreleased material that I am now coveting in the worst way. One of the songs she sang during the interview (accompanied by…

  • a day of peace

    Thanks to Tess at Anchors and Masts, I saw the video below and learned about the work of Peace Direct and that today, September 21, is the United Nations International Day of Peace. At one point in the short film, as Gill is putting on her artificial legs, the text reads, “Gill believes in the…

  • ornithology

    In our first summerI started feeding birds –you’ll have to feedall year round,our neighbor said,or they’ll die in winter I thoughtI was doing thema favor. Now they congregatein the crisp autumn airand wait like worshippersfor me to fill the feederwhile the wild geesefly overhead I wonderif both instinctsare true. Peace,Milton P. S. — You can…