Inferno
Six breaths a minute — I’m an old locomotive in a cold dark wood — I see covered faces — snow on blood ~ [ 2066 ]
Archive for January 2026
Pebbles in a Pond
Our questions, problems, troubles are pebbles in a pond. Out of reach, yet they rest in the peace of a quiet mind. If we go in after them, up comes mud. ~ [ 2065 ]
Cleaning and Dreaming
It rained a little during the night — not much, but enough to lighten, maybe even leaven the air, as if the clouds, instead of moving in from the west, arrived from the yeast. Either way, the crust has been dampened, and life is more than a cabaret, it’s a boulangerie. In all but two bedrooms, I dusted and mopped our new floor, which, save for a speck here and […]
Is, Was, and Will Be
A while back I noted reading In Thackeray’s London, written and illustrated by Francis Hopkinson Smith. I’ve since had the good luck of finding In Dickens’s London, published by Smith the following year, in 1914. The book, for which I paid a little under eight dollars, arrived in yesterday’s mail. It’s beautiful, both sturdy and aromatic, with its complex old-paper smell, the kind one might expect from having been unopened […]
Homecoming
Of all the pleasures, of all the joyful sensations, of all that’s charged with balance and meaning, first and foremost is one’s own breath. All others radiate from this single, central, indispensable gift. When we forget this, and are in the habit of taking our breath for granted, we’re more likely to be hasty and fretful, and to fall out of step with life’s natural pace and rhythm. To notice […]
Unto Peace
Owing to morning temperatures in the low-twenties, the birdbaths have seized up again. The air, meanwhile, is very dry, the streets are dry, and every bush and twig. Saturday afternoon, I was able to climb onto the roof with our electric blower and hundred-foot extension cord, and blow off all of the debris left behind by the fall storms. The fir needles were deep; the cones were plentiful; and there […]
Nowhere Man
One thing I’ve learned is to not idealize the past. On the farm, for instance, in those later years before we moved to Oregon, I would eat a fresh lemon a few minutes after rising; then I’d have a small cup of coffee; then, depending on the time of year — our lemon tree was an ever-bearing variety — I’d either have breakfast, or I’d go outside to greet and […]
Awake and Alive
The birdbaths have thawed, and are reflecting the surrounding trees and blue sky overhead. From time to time, visitors arrive to dance on their rims and partake of their rippling waters. In between, they chase each other through the brambles and still-to-be-recycled piles of storm debris, which no doubt isn’t debris to them, but just one more temporary, inevitable consequence of being awake and alive. Without the piles, they carry […]
Words for Body
Shall we examine our illnesses, and give them truer, more meaningful names, such as The North Wind, The Reminder, and The Teacher? Then we might say, I am visited by The North Wind, or, I am thankful for The Reminder. We might say, I learned great things from The Teacher. I have The Mystery. I do not fear The End. We Might Say. December 29, 2021. Poems, Notes, and Drawings. […]
Nonethemore
We broke the ice in the birdbaths and filled them with fresh water. The first drink was taken by a squirrel. Then a pair of juncos descended from the bare birches. They hopped around the rim, stopping for very quick small sips — stopping without stopping, you might say. More sun, more cold, not a drop of rain. The dry air inside makes the sinuses ache. My blood pressure was […]
William Michaelian 