Writing
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I’ve been back on the state park trail for about a week since the cold snap. The debate in the neighborhood is whether winter is over. The consensus seems to be winter is not finished. I maintain winter never really got started this season. The relatively warm temperatures, consistently, and year upon year, mean trouble… Read more
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Summer came today…Cool, windy, clear.On the weathered picnic benchI sawed limbs,fallen during the storm,into firewood.A child stacked logson the deck,near the gateleading to the driveway.~ Written while living in the Calumet 1988-1993 Read more
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Black Coat, long cut, with a red flower in the lapel. Top hat rounded, and in good shape.He hung it on the vacuum tank while he worked.Come in.Where is the fire place?Move things around so there is room.Lay out the cloth.Bring in the drum-like vacuum pump,Rods and brushes.Move things out of the fireplaceSweep, lights.Point out… Read more
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I bud with the maple tree this Spring.As insignificant as we seem, come summer, we shall grow, and make manifest our promise.Come first frost… our colors will change, our pigmentation turns beauteous, as experience will become this adult body into which I’ve settled.As our days are spent, whether as bud or as autumn leaf, we… Read more
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My farmer friends are lining up customers for the 2025 growing season. February is the time folks sign up for a community supported agriculture share and there is a limit to how many shares each farm can produce. I used to belong to a CSA yet no longer need one. My large garden usually produces… Read more
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On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks hosted a Telephone Town Hall with an estimated 15,000 participants. I listened to the whole thing. If one can filter out all the MAGA assertions, such as “As we know, January 20, 2025 was the beginning of a new golden age in American history,” there were things to… Read more
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A recurring theme in my personal journals is the following: We must all recognize our two feet standing squarely on the ground. (Personal Journal, Iowa City, Iowa, June 29, 1983). What does that mean? Since I left home to attend university, my life has been one of self reliance. I intend to stand on my… Read more
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As part of the resistance, the machinery of a Republican government will be clanking in the background no matter what else I am doing, even as it needs improvement, maintenance, and breaks down intentionally. I am doing my part and want to do more. I also have to move the rest of my life forward.… Read more
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Before deactivating my Facebook account, I posted a photo of Rainer Werner Fassbinder as my profile picture. The New German Cinema was in vogue in Iowa City during the early 1980s. I saw more than 20 films by Fassbinder during a two-year period. He died on June 10, 1982, of a drug overdose/suicide. The joke… Read more
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Editor’s Note: As I prepare for my exit from Facebook, I came across this list of quotes from a long time ago. They remain some of my favorites. “For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie– deliberate, contrived and dishonest– but the myth– persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold… Read more
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