As it turns out, the poems of Loren Eiseley, gathered under the title Notes of an Alchemist, are some of the very best I’ve read. As I mentioned a few days ago, the book was published in 1972 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, and I was lucky enough to find a copy here in a Salem used bookstore. A quick search online, though, shows the volume is still readily available — […]
Two or three days ago, we were visited by a family of bluebirds — a rare thing for us here in the valley. The youngsters, of which we think there were two or three, were capable fliers, but still clumsy enough to occasionally miss their landing targets. The parents were feeding them atop the neighbor’s fence, a convenient flat board that served as their picnic table. They were around for […]
How I love those who never sell out or lose sight of themselves, and who hold their ground like wise old trees against the elements. They’re rare, these few: they don’t conform, or allow themselves to be driven from their purpose by the imagined needs and wants of the societies and cultures into which they’re born. They’re holy messengers, even when they most appear to be dreamers and fools; leaders, […]
A walk around the block is enough to tell me how much, in these public lives we lead, we owe it to each other to make our own little contributions of neatness, order, and beauty. Everyone benefits from flowers, for instance, a bit of greenery, and a swept sidewalk. Even bare unplanted space that’s raked periodically and kept free of litter is a positive statement that’s good for the eye […]
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, and heartily recommend, the book I just finished reading: Pedlar’s Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott, by Odell Shepard. Published in 1937 in Boston by Little, Brown and Company, this masterpiece of biography was the publisher’s Centenary Prize Book, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1938. It’s easily one of the best biographies I’ve read, and I’ve read many. Shepard’s work, […]
We’ve all seen it: the grocery stores are stocked with plastic fruits and vegetables, most of which are laced with poison. In neighborhoods far and wide, perfectly good garden space in sunny locations is taken up by lawns, many of which are also poisoned. Trees are cut down to make room for more concrete, upon which to park even more vehicles, which in many cases outnumber the residents. And so […]
Notes of an AlchemistPoems by Loren EiseleyIllustrated by Laszlo KubinyiNew York : Charles Scribner’s Sons (1972) Found in a local used bookstore, after what struck me as a dreary drive past pot stores, fast food joints, and numerous other businesses that have no reason for existing, other than to satisfy a society that prizes bad habits and unhealthy living; past men and women pushing shopping carts bearing all of their […]
We come and go in search of minds — minds of depth, minds of truth, minds open to other minds however differently they might see the world, and because they see the world differently. Knees on the ground, trowel in hand, hoping we might find each other. Backs and necks to the sun, on trails winding and trails long. Raven. Quail. Dove. Deer, with mouths to the river, now looking […]
We see them everywhere — little children watching their mothers and fathers intent on their phones, staring, necks broken, spirits nowhere to be found. I’m here — and I’m so alone. And they will be more so, when given their own. ~ [ 2139 ]
William Michaelian 