Mother's Day 2010: A long annoying beep wakes me, an alarm system's battery back-up out of whack. The power outage that began last night shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. Before going to bed I saw the sky light up. It's the kind of thing that happens when intense winds send tree limbs … [Read more...] about Happiness
I know It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll . . .
In the Canary Islands, descendants of an aboriginal people called the Guanches communicate via an ancient whistling language. As Diane Ackerman eloquently tells it in A Natural History of the Senses, "They trill and warble a little like quails and other birds, but more elaborately, and, from as far … [Read more...] about I know It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll . . .
Lazy Hazy Days
Midsummer night: I stand outside on my deck, stare up at the moon through the trees, follow the music. To the left I tune into the percussive cicadas, to the right a chorus of tree frogs, in-between the rhythmic whistle of crickets. We call them 'lazy, hazy days,' but summer always seems so … [Read more...] about Lazy Hazy Days
A Piece of Paradise
Sometimes I wonder if it was the image that came first, not the word. The link between the two is intrinsic, a chicken-and-egg conundrum that rests more on riddle than solution. Both have the power to conjure; one is worth a thousand of the other. Sometimes words are not enough, or they're too … [Read more...] about A Piece of Paradise
Grace Notes
In Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing, the most recent of his collections, there's a poem, "My Guitar," that takes its shape as a drawing, one of many that stand alone or as illustrations paired with poems: My guitar is so beautifulSometimes I wish I could play it The humility is pure, the … [Read more...] about Grace Notes
