It's no easy thing to write a sonnet. I spent some amount of time in college trying. I came very close to being a classics major. I spent a lot of time translating Aeschylus and Euripedes. There's something appealing about trying to follow a set … [Read more...]

I saw a skink yesterday. Twice! A five-lined skink, to be specific. It was hanging out in the sun on the sidewalk beside the retaining wall around the church yard next door. There are little holes at the bottom of the wall for drainage and it was … [Read more...]

It's not raining now, but it will be again soon enough. I never complain about April rain, knowing how dry it usually is by August. Every drop matters. The most popular blog post I've written was about rain. It wasn't because of anything I said. … [Read more...]

Folks, it is both Day 7 of National Poetry Month and National Beer Day! The stars are truly aligned. I wrote a poem about beer once, but I can only remember the first stanza. Could that be, in an ironic twist, due to the brain cells I lost from … [Read more...]

Here's a baseball poem for opening day from Hobart, a literary magazine that features baseball fiction, nonfiction and poetry every April, as anyone self-respecting magazine should. BASEBALL'S CRUEL LEXICON Nicholas Mainieri Can you wield an ash … [Read more...]

Georgia Bellas, also known sometimes as Mr. Bear Stumpy, is both one of the kindest and most talented writers around. Along with stuffed animals Mr. Bear and Stumpy, she hosts the Violet Hour Saloon on Boston Free Radio, a show with music, poetry, … [Read more...]

A friend reminded me of this old nursery rhyme. My mom used to say it to me all the time. That, and singing "Rockin' Robin." It seems appropriate on a chilly Saturday morning for National Poetry … [Read more...]

Day two of National Poetry Month. A friend sent me a few quotes from this Wendell Berry poem a month or so ago and it was so reaffirming. Exactly what I needed to hear at the moment. We go away into solitude precisely so that we can better commune … [Read more...]

No April Fool's Day here. It's National Poetry Month and I am not a poet, but if you write, you owe something to poetry. So here's a good poem for today in Indiana, one of my favorite poets. A man who was much better than the Beat writers he gets … [Read more...]

Lately I've been writing things that are a lot closer to my real life. My life, as in things that happened to me. Stories that dance just at the edges between fiction and nonfiction. I call them stories, but they could be essays. I find the only way … [Read more...]