He was Sixteen

My personal account of a young man's fatal traffic accident.

The Ides of March

Wet concrete heavy in the shovel Backstraps strain, lumbars grind Cold to the touch white to the eye Knee high in the Colorado Rockies Beware the Ides of March

Carry On

I don't listen to much music these days. There are a few exceptions, but generally, I don’t care for most of what I have heard on the radio in the last 20 years, so what is the point? Yes, I realize musical tastes are very subjective, and that the following perspective will likely offend some …

Two Portraits

Here are two portraits I drew from muses on the Sktchy app on my phone. One was waiting in the car outside the grocery store. The other waiting in the car outside the dental office. Click to enlarge. Ni (ink with watercolor)Richard (ink)

Amanda Gorman

On January 20, I gained another favorite poet after being entranced by the words of (and delivery by) Amanda Gorman at the United States capitol. If, for some reason, you missed (or boycotted) the United States presidential inauguration, at least go here or somewhere else on YouTube and listen to this young woman recite her …

Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron (1934-2021). With all that's going on this month, we may not have noticed that a baseball legend passed away. I was still a baseball fan in 1974 when Hank Aaron (#44 for the Atlanta Braves) hit his 715th home run, surpassing Babe Ruth's long-standing record. I was not aware at the time, but …

Relinquished

Last November, my essay, "Relinquished" and accompanying drawing, were published in "Weber - The Contemporary West" (the Weber State University literary journal). This essay is about an antelope hunting trip with one of my sons years ago that has an unexpected twist at the end. This is a print journal but the web version is …

Opiate Nation

Book Review of Opiate Nation

The Raven

The Common Raven (Corvus corax) is a large and widely distributed corvid. In the Western Hemisphere, they range from the arctic to Central America, and from 14,000 ft peaks down to the coast. Other similar species range throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. Some confuse a raven with its smaller cousin the crow, but please do not …

Outage Brain

Spring and fall are shoulder seasons for the public’s relentless demand for electricity. Milder temperatures tend to abate the air conditioners’ limitless appetite for kilowatts. For those of us who work in power plants, this is the time to overhaul our over-worked turbines. "Outage" is the term. In the last twenty years, I can hardly …

Presidential

I’ve been trying to remember what it means to be presidential. I believe the term used to mean demonstrating dignity, respecting due process in the exercise of power, and making efforts to unite more than just his voting base, but the entire “United” States of America. That’s what I remember, anyway. Abraham Lincoln (pen and …

Fodder for Daydreams

My boots have been in the closet and my fly line dry for much too long. August is our time to head to the high country to escape the dog days of summer and breathe thin alpine air. This is the time to eat fresh trout with crispy bannock, and gaze at a host of …

The Human Face

Musings about the human face linked to a gallery of my portrait drawings.

Trying to Breathe

A week ago, Renée pointed to her computer and said, “You should watch this video, but be prepared.” We don’t have a television in our house and neither of us have been desensitized to TV violence for at least three decades. To watch the scene of George Floyd being strangled to death in broad daylight …

Juxtaposition of Germs

A dark SUV flips a U-turn and parks a stone’s cast from where I crouch over an unconscious bundle of fur. A woman hops out and crosses the road. With one hand in her hair, she speaks with urgency. “I hit something. What did I hit?” I was returning from work at the power plant …

Friends at Breakfast

Saw this symbiotic scene out in the meadow a few mornings ago. See haiku below. head down, deer grazes magpie picks distended ticks few words are exchanged 

Wendell Berry

The Peace of Wild Things  (by Wendell Berry) When despair grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron …

Li-Young Lee

Historically, I have feared poetry. I can think of only a couple exceptions. Eventually, I learned the distinction between "accessible" and "inaccessible" poetry. It was the latter that frightened me, making me feel inadequate, thinking I was too dull to get the point or too disconnected from popular culture to understand the punch line. But …

Distance

My hands are not used to all this soap and water. The alcohol from my little spritzer of homemade hand sanitizer stings the tiny cuts on the edge of my finger. I greet a co-worker from a distance, our hands tucked into our pockets. The morning meeting typically consists of thirty-five power-plant workers crowded around …

Fasten Your Seatbelt

The Corona Virus (a.k.a., COVID-19) is infiltrating human populations all around the world now, and the hysteria is becoming palpable. I am over sixty years old, and other than the Y2K scare, I do not personally remember any similar public reaction to a common, universal threat. People are actually hoarding masks and hand sanitizer and …