Take a second look …
The yellow eyes of the Saw-whet Owl are so startling, their gaze so steady, that we tend to ignore everything else. It’s easy to miss the trace of blood just below the owl’s bill, a smear of something that changes the way we look at the bird, that deepens our understanding of it. What discoveries might we make if we took that second look more often, if we trained ourselves to see?
Novels
Short Stories
Essays
Latest Posts
Poets against Tyranny: Don’t Pay the Dane-Geld!
The last sentence in Shelley’s A Defense of Poetry is the only one most people remember: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” But the argument that precedes this statement is even more provocative than its conclusion. Shelley argues that poets have always had a tangible effect on the laws that govern human societies because their poems exploit our innate ability to recognize what is true and beautiful in life. “A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth.” The secret to poetry’s persuasive power is the intense pleasure it provides, which inspires people to … Read more
Read More
“Good Morning Blues:” Della Reese Live (1966)
Am I the only one who still remembers and esteems this album? I bought my copy at Spec’s Music store in Miami the year it was released. I was fourteen years old and listened to the LP so many times that I wore down the grooves on the vinyl, and the record snapped, crackled, and popped every time I played it. Della Reese had a late career as a TV actor (Chico and the Man, Touched by an Angel). That is probably how people remember her now, if they remember her at all. Most have forgotten that in her youth … Read more
Read More
Death of a Rabbit
It started with a scream. I was walking down the dirt path that surrounds a pond on the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto. To my right were stands of weeds and wildflowers, and to my left the pond, which was covered with lilypads. At the end of summer, the path was dry and dusty. I was there to photograph butterflies. I heard a scream behind me, coming from the weeds. Then another, even louder and more insistent than the first. I turned to look, thinking it might be a feral cat in some sort of trouble. A ball of fur … Read more
Read MoreWinged Creatures Photo Gallery
