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Next Chapter
It seems like a month since I’ve taken a breath. The Honey Locust trees are in bloom all around Big Grove. Apples and pears are forming in our small stand of fruit trees. Nature’s relentless cycle...
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Clearing Space
The lower level of our home is not finished. In August 1993, as we trucked our belongings inside, I set up a wooden desk bought for a buck after returning to Iowa from Germany. It’s in about the same...
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Thursday in the County
Leaves of soybeans turn, painting a landscape of green, amber and gold as the plants die, pods wither and beans dry in the field. Tall corn is also losing its green, its growing season done. Soon...
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Sunday Writing
These days I wonder less about my readership than I used to. While my numbers are nowhere near the popular Jackie Collins who succumbed to breast cancer yesterday, I continually run into people who...
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Next Steps as a Writer
I plan to reduce my blog writing to one post per week to focus on a couple of larger writing projects off line. This platform will continue to address sustainability issues. I hope regular readers will...
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On Not Being Vachel Lindsay
On June 23, 2009 I made my last business trip in a career with many of them. Arriving in Chicago on the corporate aircraft, we drove to the Loop to explain the account transition precipitated by my...
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Working to Write
I work to write. It became clear at CRST Logistics I couldn’t combine writing with a career the way William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and every college teacher who took ink to paper did. I...
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Big Grove 2015 Highlights
Having yesterday off work at the home, farm and auto supply store, I made a trip to the grocery store and considered last year. Here are some highlights for interested readers. Reading list. A key...
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Mid-week Hustle
It doesn’t appear we will get a solid week of subzero temperatures this winter. Based on the five-day forecast I’m planning to prune the fruit trees on Sunday. Would that growing food were all there...
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On Our Own Into 2016
“Publishers are not accountable to the laws of heaven and earth in any country and regardless of my opinion, editors and publishers will print what they will.” I wrote this in a letter to the editor of...
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Finally A Writing Plan
The next non-internet writing project will be an autobiography in 10,000 words — taking the relative success of Autobiography in 1,000 words and expanding it to twenty 500-word parts as follows: Birth...
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Walt Whitman’s ‘New Book’
That scholars would publish newly found material written by Walt Whitman is not surprising. In a time where old newspapers are being digitized and new methods of scholarship seine existing publications...
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Pickled Items
I’ll be taking a break for a while. I’m as busy as ever figuring out what life is and what my life will be. In August I’ll be filling in for the editor of Blog for Iowa. Regular posting will … Continue...
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Working the Story Board
My work as fill-in editor at Blog for Iowa begins in three weeks. It has been easy to fill a story board with post ideas. What’s hard is picking what matters from flotsam and jetsam in a sea of social...
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August 2016
While Europeans vacation in Italy and the South of France, I’ll be writing some 12,000 words on Blog for Iowa. August is neither recess nor vacation for low-wage American workers. I’ll have a chance to...
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August Recess
SOLON, Iowa — While Trish Nelson takes a well-deserved break, I will attempt to fill her shoes at Blog for Iowa. Delegates from the national party conventions dispersed last week and there is a lot to...
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Friends and Bloggers – 2016
A goal of a writer should be to provide unique insight into contemporary society informed by life events. If what’s written is not so informed, then why bother? At the rate internet memes are cranked...
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Into The Vanishing Point
A new perspective revealed itself from paths traveled daily. Something showed through the uncut grass and garden in the light of a rising sun. I should quit thinking and mow the damn lawn. It depends....
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First Folio: Important, but no Beowulf
The Folger Shakespeare Library of Washington, D.C. sent copies of the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays on a 50-state exhibition in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death in...
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A Place To Work
Only after a couple of days away from daily routine can a person begin to be themselves. That’s where I am this morning. I crave a place to work. Desire is a blessing and a curse. When we want...
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