BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT.. CARNIVAL SOUL. The sunset streaks with orange and purple and the wind is blowing from the Southeast, ragged and fitful and soft to the touch. The wind smells of the South, all hints of loblolly pine and eternal sea and summer memory, of summers long ago, and of forbidden Southern rock beneath…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… RAIN, SUN, SWEAT. The heat waned marginally as the sun slowed to the horizon. Another day almost done, another mile, another thought, another schedule. Slowly, the crazy and swirling thoughts and voices past and present began to fade. The late afternoon sun might have dropped the temperature, but not the humidity. End…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… BARN POEMS. I was about eight years old, wearing overalls, and climbing over the big horse gate in the barn. There were two big horse gates in our little barn, a ladder to the haymow made of mismatched wood, and a little plastic duck with big blue eyes — a duck covered…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… SUNSET DEATH. I was up early in the light rain, walking the dogs on the forest trail before getting to my summer work. There had been no rain on the radar or forecast but the showers came down anyway, even as an early sun peeked through the bright grays of the East.…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… SKY CHANGE. I took off running after the July thunderstorm, running to the top of the south hill where the big hawthorn grew, running past the grapevines and the plum thicket and the day lilies wet with evening rain.The sky was clearing and I knew, somehow, I should be high up on…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… DISCIPLINE & HOPE BENEATH THE SUMMER SUN. The 6:30 Saturday morning alarm sounds and I let it repeat three times before turning it off. In retrospect, choosing a song — and an Enya song at that — may not have been the best idea. The Irish artist’s Forge of Angels keeps lulling…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE MEMORY CHICKENS. “Your house is like going to grandma’s in the ’90s,” my friend is saying and I’m not sure if I should be amused or insulted. I tend to curate friends who speak their mind. And the eclectic collection of porcelain chickens in the kitchen stare down in an affirming…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE LONG LAST DAY. The orange sun slips behind the western mountain ridges. Summer solstice ends, even as the evening news begins its frantic reporting of the Iran bombings by US stealth bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster, Missouri. Historic times for sure. War perhaps averted by war.…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… AMERICAN FRONTIERS. The caravel’s sails billowed and orchestral music swelled. I was glued to the TV that early summer of 1992, watching a PBS documentary on Columbus and the New World. Shot on location in the Caribbean as well as Spain, the documentary included panoramic scenes of warm Floridian skies, the dark…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE WARRIOR POETS. The sun was hot that late afternoon and bits and pieces of the moment still float somewhere in my memory. We were parked out back behind the old high school — now the junior high, a red brick monstrosity augmented by appropriately boring brick cubes added to expand learning…