In the film Wings of Desire, an angel perches on buildings that tower over Berlin. Seeing the world only in black and white, he listens to the stream of human thought driven by the spectrum of emotions. Without interfering, except for leaning in to express empathy, he documents earthly existence until taking the plunge to become human.
Category: Essay
Mottled History: The Love Behind a Peeling Vintage Table
I wore down layers of old paint on the vintage table. Running my hands over the just-right smoothness, I saw stories in the splotched surface: black paint from the furniture’s earliest days—maybe when my grandmother sipped morning coffee and gazed on her flowers; green when my mother went for a spring look; and sunny yellow in the hopeful days of my marriage.
You Can’t Take the Country Boy out of the Man
Was I lucky to have a dad obsessed with transplanting north Georgia mountain tradition to Alabama soil? I didn’t think so, especially on Saturday afternoons. While the neighbors’ kids played kickball on the cul-de-sac, our family tended the crops on the utility easement. There was nothing sentimental about growing squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, corn, and beans, beans, beans—until now.
Memorial Day: Cherishing Life in the Brutality of War
He scooped up a few gentle creatures and stowed them in shoeboxes below. The typhoon raged, battering most birds to death against the ship. When the seas calmed, Dad slipped below and gathered the shoeboxes. Then he ran topside, releasing the birds to soar. Life, after all, in the madness of death.
Accidental poet? Yup, doing my thing (love or leave it)
Poetry’s payoff seems less about praise or copies sold. I figure you’re blessed if you get to paint images with words, fiddle with figures of speech, juxtapose the unlikely, ponder the human condition, celebrate nature’s wonders, forgive the relationships that broke (and built) you, sing of those you love, and mourn your losses.