For Memorial Day, I headed up to Luna Pier to hang out with Don and his family.  Saturday morning we served food to the poor downtown — something Don does every week. I placed slices of cheese on burger patties and chatted with Chuck, who was placing the patties on the buns.  Afterwards we kayaked... Continue Reading →

I don’t garden. This has been my rule since I was eight or so and decided my mother’s sweaty days pulling weeds in a back yard she’d transformed into a terraced flower garden were Not For Me.  Why on earth, I wanted to know, would you build a living, reproducing, photosynthesizing work-machine behind your house... Continue Reading →

Long before Teddy Roosevelt, nineteenth-century men were concerned about the effeminizing effects of the urban environment. Some of these intrepid worriers were moved to act. They slipped free from censorious congregationalist ministers, battalions of teetotaling aunts, and torpid afternoons in the drawing room. These real men seized the spirit of real manhood and struck out... Continue Reading →

When I was twenty, I didn’t see the point in photographs. I walked through Europe and an Alaskan vacation, a trip to Kansas and one to Tennessee, not capturing a single frozen memory. I brought back nothing to take out later and say, if only to myself, “Remember when?” People told me I’d regret it.... Continue Reading →

Yesterday I took a new bicycle out on an old trail. I rode through cornfields and cow-fields, taking it all in, enjoying myself. But when I shifted gears, the day caught a little. I pedaled; it protested. There was an odd sound or two, then smooth again. Back in place, I thought. But not exactly.... Continue Reading →

This bicycle trail has sharp and steep curves. Proceed accordingly. This trail over here (for those who forgot their bicycles) has sharp drop-offs into spinning whitewater. Proceed accordingly. This trail (which we recommend you don’t take) has the worst thing you could ever imagine, and this one (yes, it is the only other route) has... Continue Reading →

The first line from the poem this morning was...well, not a joke, exactly, but definitely a reference. My friend Robin has been telling me to take a drive on Southern Road (a real road, running east to west across a portion of southern Michigan) for years now. "The wildflowers are beautiful," she says, "It's worth... Continue Reading →

A few weeks ago, I set the goal of writing a short essay every Sunday.  It is Sunday. And thus far, I have not written a short essay.  The reason’s pretty simple: I’m tired.  I’m tired in a way that I haven’t been for some time. Though, if we’re being honest (and why not?) not... Continue Reading →

I’m writing this one at night time. I mean, not that you care, or anything. You’re reading it whenever you’re reading it, right?  But for me, to be writing at night is…well. It’s difficult. Afternoon, even, is difficult. I’m best in the mornings. Good till one or two o’clock. By four, my attention is starting... Continue Reading →

As you can tell (you, my audience, grown exponentially from 3-5 all the way to 6-8), I've been writing poetry. Quite a bit of it, for me. Prior to this, the only poems I'd written were for my dad, the year he was dying. Rhyming stuff to make him smile, story for a different time.... Continue Reading →