I awakened today and found a gift had had been given to me during the night. The gift: a day that belongs entirely to me; seamless; to be shared or not as I like. Virginia Woolf’s line, ‘A free day, a perfect pearl‘ comes to mind. I google the line in order to attribute it properly. What comes up: 1) Wikiquotes/Virginia_Woolf 2) Love in the Second Act: True(…)
As spring of 1945 burst through exhausted ruins, peace visited Europe beginning on May 8th. Now was a chance to make a better world and what better time to begin than spring. A few days less than three months later, August 6th, 8:15 a.m. 1945 an American B-29 bomber dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima,(…)
A young Canadian acquaintance has gone to the interior of Ecuador as a volunteer. Following are a few notes taken from a phone call he made during his stay: “…, they are the most beautiful and lovely people. Words can’t even describe how beautiful they are. I went there to help them. But they helped me –(…)
This photo depicts someone who looks like they wandered onto a Civil War battlefield. Or, an extra from Grapes of Wrath. Not so. It happens to be me at about age 11 or 12 at sleep-away camp. For about 5 years, every August 1, I was taken to the Port Authority Bus Station and put on a bus by(…)
Another bite from my upcoming work NOT NOT A JEW, A NOVELLA IN VERSTS [fromPart II, “Long Day’s Journey into Day” when the ne’er-do-well son (Ira) returns to his parent’s (Vera and Eli’s) home after many years adrift (chasing food and sex) to try to be of some use at their life’s end…. At the stile, the official eyed Ira with(…)
Lucia Joyce, the only daughter of James and Nora Joyce, was born on this day in 1907. She died in 1982 having spent 47 years in mental hospitals. Although she was diagnosed as schizophrenic, her father refused to accept it. Instead he believed she was a genius like himself. I wrote about Lucia’s sad, thwarted life(…)
Following, a short excerpt from NOT NOT A JEW, A NOVELLA IN VERSTS, a new work to be published by TMI Press in the near future. Set, at first, in Berlin, pre-war, meet Eli, a painter, Vera, his wife, who is studying medicine, and Karl, their first son who will not leave Europe with them(…)
In its literature, the Carole Lombard Savoy Home for Mature Adults is described as ‘nestled within’ four acres of tended grounds planted with bougainvillea, queen palms and eucalyptus. It’s(…)
In childhood we had a school chair, dark wood, with many deep scratches made by children, desk attached including circular hole for ink bottle, a drawer underneath for books. In youth we had a hammock in which you could lie and roll yourself round and round, becoming encased in hemp like an ampule. In young adulthood I(…)
Following, Chapter I from ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM written with Darin Elliott for folks between ages 10-14 and all others who have an inclination to know more about alcoholic intervention, alcoholism in a loved one and/or talking dogs. Seems an apt moment as I’m seeing so many summer revelers reeling from one side of the HighLine to(…)
