If you blended Beatrix Potter with Stephen King, you might come close to Hans Christian Andersen. All three writers started life with severely limited opportunities. All three overcame those challenges through hard work, grit, and the necessary dashes of chutzpah and luck. And, all three focus (in their own, unique way) on the tough realities…
If modern scientists are to be believed, when the star we orbit starts to die, it will expand into a red giant, becoming so large that it engulfs Mercury and Venus, and possibly the Earth as well. Until then, life will endure on our planet, and the vast majority of that life will be non-humanoid….
The melodies of tree rain are magical from the dull, droning Chinese water torture tunes to the scintillating syncopation of penthouse jazz and back street blues to the jaunty Harlem tap dance or the trotting gait of a Gaelic hornpipe The rain dances of the great trees are pure, sublime magic
Once upon a time, the world changes. On an Island like this one, forest and mist reclaim the land, technology falls away, and certain names disappear. Calling out to her two children to come home, a mother puzzles in mid-holler as she forgets their names. Noticing the two bushes on either side of the front…
A retelling of an Irish mythIllustration above by Jane Valencia Here on Vashon Island, now is the time that the salmon return home after long years in the ocean. Up streams and rivers they swim and leap and lunge, taking in deep scents of the waters along the way, smells that reach into their beginnings…
By March Twisdale Written roughly 100 years ago, Upton Sinclair’s novel, “The Jungle,” captures the breadth of human behavior, both then and now. There is an interesting fact about fictional stories. No matter how far the author’s imagination strays from what is considered real or mundane, the fundamental basis of their work, the world, the…
SummerSethaiku hummingbird lingers summer sets on shorter days fragrance holds the rose A comment about these poems:My creative focus has been concerned with the spaces between things, seasons, mind-sets, and life stages— those liminal markers, like summer fragrance on dried roses and that new wrinkle on the brow.
Please enjoy a poem by Margaret Roncone and two poems by Claudia Hollander-Lucas. Autumn Light lengthening shadowsdiscard bright lightstore it in acupboard for next June what I notice andpause to studyare narrators ofa fresh storyunfolding in pebbled graveldried grassand moon’s play on stone. By Margaret Roncone Margaret Roncone: I write poetry daily because of a…
Selected by Merna Ann Hecht These poems are in celebration of autumn as a time of harvest and a time when a rich tapestry of color is paraded for us by the natural world. Merna Ann Hecht has contributed two poems and two favorites, one by Canadian poet Lorna Crozier and one by Jane Hirschfield….
In the world of Hollywood or the theatre, a performer who can act, sing, and dance is called a “triple threat.” Anne McCaffrey’s “Crystal Singer Trilogy”is a literary triple threat, as it feeds your soul in youth, maturity, and retirement! Making it an exceptionally good use of wood pulp and ink. Bursting onto the page,…