Here we are at the end of March, and I am thinking about December. Well, not really December. I am thinking about town and how I sometimes go there to write. Town can be a location and an idea. In…
By early December there was not much snow, and by the end of the December there was not any snow. I took a long walk on a day between then and now. A walk in the far north in winter…
It was around the first of October that the leaves on the birch trees began to blow away. I looked out of the window one morning and saw that leaves had gathered at the side of the road. I saw…
Almost 30 years ago, not long after I’d started The Zephyr, one of my favorite parts of the paper was the ‘Feedback” section. I always looked forward to the letters—and in those days they really were letters, on real paper,…
South of the Clouds he discovered an insectbiting his handand said this could be the beginningof something. three weeks laterhe diedsomewhere southof the clouds. actuallythis is a poem about drinking tea. Objet d’Art a man found the key to longevity…
In 1956, Irving Stone published Men to Match My Mountains: The Monumental Saga of the Winning of the American Far West with a chapter named “Giants Stalk the Land.” Both titles are appropriate, in modified form, for this chapter. Here…
Existential Roads The right-of-way for the construction of highways across public lands not otherwise reserved for public purposes is hereby granted — Revised Statute 2477, 1866 Mining Act. When you construct a road does it have to go anywhere? Is…
From the OUTER BANKS… GOOD MEN…Long Time Passing Judy Banks I grew up believing that once I was grown I’d find a good man and make him my own My search for this man has left me at a…
THEME PARKS John Colter, 1807-08 They kept track of him that winter west of the Absarokas, by day brilliant ravens avid over snow, wolves and coyotes hung around refining careful judgements, the man recognized: one of them, killers and scavengers…
Dove Creek I know how my father Picked through the desert Looking for ruins. I know the golf clubs He carried to ward off snakes, Swinging them through sage And dens made uneasy In their own shadows then. All for…