Journal

New American Past

Before the mountains came to Utah, there was only salt. Before the salt there were giant lakes of salt water, called oceans. Before the oceans there was red. Only red....

Butterfly Ranger

She placed the cold metallic binocular rings to her cheeks and let her eyes slowly adjust to the lenses. The metal was cold because the air was cold outside, and...

Miner's Apparition

I didn’t notice her at first, a sleepwalking apparition-grey against the melting spring snow. I had gone down for water and on the trail back up as I stumbled through...

A Lesson

As the colors of the passing year present themselves now in cloaks of grey, of cinder, of charcoal, it would not be uncommon to see them in their dying shells...

Thanksgiving 2018 Poem

When chop, chunk, clunk the axeUpon felled wood at corncribs back,Does echo off the forest wallwith Pileated’s staccato callThere is sense, a feel, a wayThat says here comes a holiday.And...

Torch Bearer

Euripides the star was having a conversation with a bullfrog one day, while they were both reflecting off the surface of a pond on some western ranch. The bullfrog was...

Salt Flats Messenger

The salt flats were once a vivid and colorful place. Paramecium and armadillos dressed in pink and paraded up and down the mountains. Loose flocks of purple crows staggered around...

A Thanksgiving Story

437 years ago on this day, Meleagris Gallopavo was clucking casually as she made her daily rounds through the eastern deciduous forest known only to her as the Golden Forest....

Midnight Musing: Creativity

The sign by the road said 'San Tominga River', so I slowed the van down and skidded off the road onto the shoulder. I walked back to the bridge and...

I Call Her the Confederate Queen

I got a call a few days ago..."they're tearing it down and burying it in a hole, you better come out." The first time I saw the house was as...

Mother and Father Nature

“…Hands all over the coastal watersThe crew men thank herThen lay down their oily blanket.Hands all over the inland forestIn a striking motion trees fall downLike dying soldiers…”Soundgarden, Hands all...

Spring Bass at Squibnocket

At five a.m. my alarm went off. I was delirious. I almost turned it off, but, phone in hand, I stared at the numbers on the dial and thought “this...

Souvenirs of Nature

A broken bone and a chipped tooth, an owl feather and a sun bleached skull, a seed pod and a parched pine cone….all of these things are the souvenirs of nature....

Sponges

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, Florida saw an influx of tourists who sought refuge in its warm embrace. Many of those tourists decided to make their new homes...

Cooking With Lady Smokey - Recipe Archive

Click here to see all the great recipes Lady Smokey shared with us over the years. Good food & classic country music in Nashville, TN.

Shaped Notes

“Woo hoo! It's yardsale time! Wake up!” That was the call I got at 6am a few Saturdays ago from my sis. I had gone back to Virginia to visit...

Postcards from the North: Fall Warblers

When the first notes of autumn are being scribed on falling leaves, a group of delicate and colorful birds make their way from the north country to milder climes, winging...

Scene from a Scrapyard

Standing in line at the scrapyard. This place on Chicago’s South Side is always a bustling hub of gritty activity. There are four languages being spoken here: into cell phones,...

A Thing in the Trees Beyond Me

Several weeks past, while marching hillside, streamside, pineside I collected raucous eartones.Some storage squirrel I mused,And gathering binoculars glanced northward and saw apparition likeA treeghost, avain in form and heavy...

Reminiscing about Dad

When my dad worked for the Forest Service, part of his job was to entertain the entire campground on weekends. I think it was a way for the government to...

South Side Exploration

My knuckles were already cracked and wind burned - Chicago’s winter patina a leathery skintone. When the frozen windowsill smashed down on them, it was just adding insult to injury....

Autumn Call

Fall is a word that seems more cognomen than nomen. It’s a word that is often too literal even for the most succinct writer, and it seems a shame to...

Elk County

In the dream, the elk was standing silently by the dead volcano. I could tell the volcano was dead because its black bones were now blooming as flowers and plants–wild...

Cotton Belt Junk Truck

We ventured through the land of cotton, bowled over the byways, bested back roads and broke our stride with beef brisket and sage-scented barbecue. From Houston to Little Rock, from...

The Death of the Cowboy Angel & A Chat with Gambel’s Quail

Last week I saddled up my US Airways pony and headed to the left coast in search of something. That something started to take form over the milk-topped mountains of...

Remembering Jeanne-Claude

Today I’d like to remember the life of Jeanne Claude, who was a wonderful and inspiring light in the world, by relating a personal story.She was the life partner of...

Local Girl Missing for 100 Years

This morning I arrived at the studio determined to stay on task and finish several commissions I have been working on. Needless to say, I got sidetracked by a large...