An Italian-American Writer & Poet with a Yankee Outsider Perspective
Water…a Film about India and Widowhood But it’s filmed in Shri Lanka. Beautifully filmed with close-ups of a dreamy eyed girl (around 8) in the back of an oxen-pulled wagon. Her dark eyes, framed by long heavy dark hair, stare … Continued
We in Minneapolis/Saint Paul enjoy one of the world’s great images of the Roman matron Lucretia, Rembrandt’s deeply moving portrayal just after she’s stabbed herself. I’ve stood before this achingly beautiful young woman, her chemise stained with blood, a tear … Continued
Clean Dirt: What You Learn Crossing an Ocean He was young and full-faced, pleasant, with that mid-western regularity of speech–a young man on his way from the western edge of Iowa to Johannesburg, South Africa. I wasn’t going nearly so … Continued
About eight summers ago, driving home to the Twin Cities from vacationing on the North Shore, I routinely encountered many Monarch butterflies taking their lazy flight south. Then suddenly a year or two later, there were almost none. Around the … Continued
What explains a passion for an animal and a faraway place? I certainly did not grow up with live elephants. When I was a kid in South Carolina, there were no elephants in sight. Not even at the zoo, a … Continued
My only sunshine. You do make me happy. Dreaming of catching you in sun flower disks, and little peaked roofs, in giant mirrored faces that track across the sky. My sunshine, our sunshine, with as much potential as Houston, as … Continued
Sadie and Eleonora, younger and older, first to die at 86, second to die at 95, I’ve known since my earliest memories. My father’s first cousins who grew up down a hilly Pittsburgh street from him, whose adorable little mother … Continued
We were at the North Shore in a favorite cabin high above Lake Superior. No phone, no cell phone but the friends up the hill did. They received a phone call from our landlady: Fran’s mother had died in Tennessee.Fran, … Continued
Or I should say, Life in fly-over land without a car. It’s quite possible to live a decent, middle-class existence in Chicago without a car. Buses and trains are excellent, the elevated trains get you to the airport far faster … Continued
Sorry, you alien-mystery lovers. I’m not with you. Instead, I find myself drawn to writers whose imagination transcends their own boundaries of race, class, and culture. They have the power to evoke lives quite unlike their own. I’ve read … Continued