BOOK REVIEWThe Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo LeeNon-fiction but reads like a spine-tingling thriller Contrary to what you’d expect to be the driving force behind someone defecting from a secretive dictatorship like North Korea, this young girl began her journey as a 17-year-old wanting to see something of the […]
The breeze at dawn has secrets to share.The door to middle space openswhere the two worlds touch. The magic is here. The only ticket required is your presence. You must ask for what you want. But first,you must know what you want.All this wanting is a question.All this questioning is a quest. The door is […]
How to write a book? i’m glad you asked. You create a road map, scribbled on flimsy notebook paper. You’re charting a course in shifting landscape. Directions fall off the page. Arrows mark U-turns. X’s blot out wrong turns. You cannot calculate the distance. Major destinations are eventually plotted. Even then, when you arrive, some places […]
Drinking coffee, waiting for the courier. Two owls hoot love notes to each other in owlish Morse code. Or maybe they’re discussing strategy. It’s hard to tell with owls. Hummingbirds buzz at the feeder. In between sips of sugar water, they fret about their babies. My cat rolls over and stretches like a piece of […]
Love should come with a warning label.Caution! May cause side effects. Anxiety, confusion, nausea, sleeplessness, heart palpitations.The red flowers should be a hint that tears will be shed.True love is not for the faint-hearted. It opens you to greater things.No one is prepared for the transformation, so don’t be alarmed. We don’t expect to be […]
What? You want another poem?Quickly please. I don’t have a lot of time but I need to stay in touch.Poems take slowing down, slow deep breathing.Nothing harder than doing nothing.How boring it sounds and besides I need to start a load of laundry. Just one deep breathe. You can manage that.Over there…a glimpse of the oceanbehind a glass […]
While we weren’t watching, the sky deepened into shades of charcoal with points of light created by an army of angels blowing holes through the darkness. While our sleep was broken into dreams, earthworms transformed leaves and sightless moles played tag with each other through tunnels in the back yard. While our heads were sunk […]
The last cage rolls past. Strains of a Souza march float back over the receding circus train. Children wave flags from high atop their father’s shoulders. Confetti and cotton candy fill the air. The trumpets’ final notes echo off canyon walls. You can’t see the marching band any longer, but the drumsticks’ crisp solitary clicks leave […]
The old stone savage moves slowly. You and I would not notice his nomadic ways. A rock of considerable size, the old stone was only a speck of primal dust when earth’s violent labor pains delivered its raw materials. Angels clung to each other in fear and awe of its clamorous birth. Having arisen to […]
Three old Taoist philosophers as tabbies and calico Chat on the magnolia branch Sharing deep thoughts about the elegance of sunshine and house finches, the poverty of human spirit, the art of stalking, the cleverness of politicians; Viennese skeptics who branded Marco Polo a fraud the North Star, the scent of books and a few […]