An Italian-American Writer & Poet with a Yankee Outsider Perspective
I’ve been noticing a shift in heat and days, the congregation of birds at the free-standing feeder, now full of chickadees and red and gold finches, as the fledglings forage for themselves and parents fatten up for the cold. Summer’s … Continued
When my sister and I received our allowances as kids, each week’s outlay probably amounted to a quarter. In that distant era, when a loaf of sliced bread cost a nickle, and a bottle of milk not much more, a … Continued
When we were kids in Charleston, South Carolina during the 1950s, we’d play “London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down; London bridge is falling down, my fair lady.” Then on the “my fair lady,” the four clasped and … Continued
William Faulkner drew the title for his 1932 novel from a comment his wife made while they were sitting on their porch, “There’s something different about the light in August.” That was in the depths of the Great Depression. Here … Continued
Nothing like a trip far north, to the shores of Lake Superior, where you can almost see the earth curve, to clear the mind of minutiae and pour in new food for thought. Waking at 5 a.m. with the sun … Continued
Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, we built huge drip castles with moats and added draw bridges of shells. On the edge of the foamy tide, we raced and felt the ridges in the sand with our bare feet. Our … Continued
The Mississippi Flyway, it’s called–that rather wide band of north-south air traffic from the top of Lake Superior down the Minnesota and Wisconsin watershed to the huge Mississippi delta, including its many tributary deltas like the Yazoo, home of Eudora … Continued
What are the two most powerful human impulses–after food and sex? I’d vote for motion. Let’s try pilgrimage and conquest. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales gives voice, certainly for the first time in English, to the charm of communal travel toward a … Continued
Bonnie Jo Campbell’s short story collection titled American Salvage recently caught my attention because a friend of many years and few actual visits recently drove me through rural Michigan where many of the stories take place. My friend Irene (not … Continued