I run half a mile more. Sometimes I feel I can run forever. Then I realize I already have, and do, through the mountains, between the stars. I turn a few more pages, tho’ I’ve read all the books, and have been all the characters. And I write a few more words, in this, my present language, Tho’ I’ve already written them all, and said them all, and you’ve read […]
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 […]
Another bright, sunny afternoon. The south-facing side of the house is flooded with light; the north-facing side, which is where I am, is quite dim — dim enough that I’ve already turned on my little stained glass dragonfly lamp, which is situated about six inches to the left of the laptop computer I use here on the desk. This morning was agreeably spent cleaning the house. This afternoon, we took […]
Little by little, Christmas trees are disappearing from neighborhood windows, as well as lights along the eaves. Here and there a giant inflated Santa or Grinch still stands, lit from within and swollen from eating too much during the holidays. Rain-battered, wind-tattered, thought-scattered, sweet butter rum. Tethered to their post, these ghosts of Christmas past seem as haunted as Dickens, while inside, children wonder why Christmas must end. They remain […]
If I fear death, then of course I fear life, because life and death can’t be separated: they’re mutually dependent, present in every process, inextricably intertwined. For proof, I need look no further than my body, where life and death are happening every minute of every day — not as a battle between the two, but in a movement so beautifully efficient and harmonious that it makes them, in terms […]
You can look at this canvas for half an hour and see little or nothing. Or you can surrender to it and see everything, and imagine even more. It depends on how hustled and harried you are, how busy, how important, how judgmental, how sure, how willing to be open or blind. What you do and what you see will be the result of your own vision and experience. It […]
This thoughtful little canvas hangs on the wall near our old oak dining table. It’s been there for years, and I still study it often, half-expecting a change in expression. Someday, if it isn’t discarded, or ruined by water or fire, it will belong to someone — valued, perhaps, or politely kept in a drawer. In that way, its story might be seen as similar to our own. And so […]
I have no idea what possessed me, just as I have no idea what possesses me now. Possessed, in the way a leaf or bubble is possessed by a slowly moving river, just before it reaches the falls. Three Drawings — I invite you to look at these. At the time they were first published, very few did, Poems, Notes, and Drawings then being only in its third installment. I […]
There is the news, there is social media, and there is the real world. In the real world, in a so-called conservative area, one can attend a grandchild’s basketball game and scarcely see what some people desperately believe is a “white person.” The crowd of parents and grandparents are a beautiful mixture of ethnic backgrounds, of shades, colors, and features; and their children and grandchildren run back and forth and […]
As well as you can, be light in your body, and light on your feet. Be the light in your body. As well as you can, be the well from which the light emanates. And be home in your body as you are home in the earth. For your body is the earth, and not only the earth, your body is the nearest and farthest star, a little cloud chasing […]
William Michaelian 