Trails of a life-long Sherpa
If you’re like me, you’ve carried a lot of things in your life—and you have a sore back to prove it! As I get on in years, I still find myself carrying too much stuff.…
Tag: Poet
Musing of a poet on the rim of the world
I recently submitted a poem to the Morton Marcus Poetry Contest…I did not win the poetry contest—however, I did get an email from the sponsor, Catamaran Literary Reader, informing me that they were “releasing” my poem back to me. (I hadn’t realized they were holding my work captive, but I felt a strange sense of comfort upon its return, like getting your coat back from the hat-check counter on a dark and stormy night!)…
On Writing about Strong Women
Literature is full of classic novels portraying strong female characters. Titles like Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, and My Ántonia, to name just a few, have graced old and new bookshelves for many years. History, as depicted in both fiction and nonfiction, has been shaped in large part by women—women with strong voices, convictions, and fortitude who have influenced every part of human existence. This demonstration continues today and no doubt will continue in the future. Check out contemporary novels like The Covenant of Water, Songbirds, and The Secret Life of Sunflowers if you’d like to read about extraordinary female protagonists.…
A while back, I built a Little Free Lending Library
A while back, I built a Little Free Lending Library. You know the kind: a boxy receptacle with shelves, a pitched roof, and small swinging glass door housing used books on various subjects.…
A test of faith. Please pray for my tree.
They prayed to their protectors, ancestors, and the natural forces that impacted them every day, such as the sun, moon, and weather gods.
Down the coast from my house sits Villa Maria Del Mar
About three blocks down the coast from my house sits Villa Maria Del Mar, a stately three-story wooden hotel first built in the 1890s to accommodate mostly Catholic vacationers…
A car trip through the beautiful Sierras
This, in a roundabout way, brings me to a local issue regarding the renaming of Cabrillo College
Where did you spend your Saturday afternoon?
Have you visited the Scotts Valley Library lately?…
The nice thing about having a blog?
You can write anything you want and be assured very few people will actually read it.…
A poem about the Ohlone people
While writing and rewriting some poems recently, I realized I never wrote a poem about the Ohlone people that inhabit my novel. In so many ways, I want to pay tribute to them and yet not speak for them. It’s not for me to define their worldview, I can only attempt to pass on a few things that I’ve learned in studying their culture, of which so little is actually known. The following is a modest attempt to capture a small part of their consciousness. Perhaps it also speaks to some current thoughts in our lives today.…