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 …

Say It Like It Is

He is such a good con-artist, he has deceived millions. Let his own words betray him. When you’re a star, you can do anything. You can... {fill in the blank}... You can get away with anything. "You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. …

The One Dollar

A short essay I wrote and illustrated was just published in The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. It is a story about a brief encounter I had last summer in Virginia (and a flashback to 1948). It is ironic that I am currently back in Newport News, VA this week to disassemble and remove the rotor …

Earth on Fire

The earth was on fire this morning Somewhere east of here Flames licked the clouds We stood around and gaped Awestruck, cameras clicking Then the apocalyptic inferno Slowly dwindled down So we all went inside And put the coffee on   As viewed from Spring Gulch, northwest of Lyons, Colorado.  

Astray

One of my poem / drawing combinations, "Astray," was recently published in Issue 44 of the Silver Blade Magazine (www.silverblade.net). Click this link to see the drawing and short poem:  http://www.silverblade.net/2019/12/astray/ Along those lines, I added a page to this blog called "Published Work" which lists my published essays, poems, and drawings. Check it out …

We Take Pictures of Mountains

We Take Pictures of Mountains I walk to my room after dinner in Savannah, Georgia. I pass an alley with two tall buildings closely spaced on either side. I pull out my camera and snap a photo. Little did I know I was being followed by an older couple. So I say it out loud, …

Helen Keller / Anne Sullivan

"The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen, heard, or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."  ~Helen Keller / Anne Sullivan Historians debate if this quote is from Helen Keller or Anne Sullivan, but regardless, here it is. I suspect the student learned it from the teacher, or it was a …

The Peoria Brotherhood: We Got a History

Forty years ago TODAY, I moved to Peoria, Illinois to finish my college degree at Bradley University. I arrived with nearly all my worldly possessions packed into my black 1965 Ford Mustang on August 9, 1979. This was my great Aunt Mary’s 73rd birthday. It was also the day someone broke into the Twelve Oaks …