If I seem preoccupied with books, it’s because I am. The fact is, if I never bought another, I still have enough to last me several lifetimes. And among them are a great many that are well worth reading again. So it should come as no surprise, that as winter closes in and my little thrift store lamps come on, I have mostly set my computer aside and dedicated myself […]
How many hours a day are my feet in contact with a natural, earthen surface? How many hours are my eyes, my body, my mind, exposed to artificial light? What must it have been like for our primitive ancestors, for whom food was the only real physical necessity, and shelter and fire the greatest of conveniences? O, the things we take for granted, the things we want, the things we […]
Late strawberries — almost ripe — the squirrels get them before we do. A cloudy morning, no dew: raked and mowed the front and back grassy areas. Birch leaves. Fir cones. Pine needles. Mushrooms. Took a walk through the neighborhood, reversing the direction of this morning’s run. This time, down the hill. Saw a man swabbing some kind of sealant on the sidewalk and driveway he had replaced two or […]
Frogs in the spring, crickets in the fall — respiration, and pulse, normal. . [ 1815 ]
I saw the lizard exactly one-quarter of a mile north of the center of the road in front of our house, resting on the dry ground within inches of the rusted peg my father had pounded in before I was born to mark the place where our farm ended and the two neighbors’ began — one with a vineyard to the west, the other with plums to the east. I’d […]
The dream is a memory, the memory a dream. One such had its beginning in perhaps my seventh or eighth year, for it was after my recurring hospital-related dream of shooting marbles with George, though not so long that others had taken on any significance. I say it had its beginning, because it lives on, even now, as I approach my sixty-seventh birthday. I was reminded of it again when […]
Two and a half miles: frogs the first time around, robins and owls the second. Forty-one degrees. Sandal-free and completely barefoot for a distance of three houses. To reflect the world, and everything and everyone in it, as clearly and truly as a high mountain lake; and when looking into that lake, to see the world and everything and everyone it. In school we were taught not to use incomplete […]
Anger, irritation, frustration, impatience; negative thoughts, unkind thoughts; worry, anxiety, fear, a desire for control — each brings tension to the body. Not only does this cause discomfort, illness, and wear, it becomes part of one’s daily physical and verbal language, thus amounting to a kind of communicable disease. During my run yesterday morning and the morning before, I heard an owl each time I passed through the street just […]
Clear sky, bright moon, frogs by the thousands — one owl, one road, deep breath, footsteps. . [ 1406 ]
The first verse is a faithful telling of something that happened which my eldest grandson has likely forgotten, and which I had forgotten too, until I rediscovered the poem. The verses that follow are still happening. . A Book and Boy A book and boy in his lap, a farmer tellshis grandson how a big combine cuts the wheat,and loaves of fresh-baked bread come outthe other end. They compare hands. […]
William Michaelian 