• DOG DAYS

    Growing up my family always had dogs,only one at a time, of course, since wewere a modern suburban family,which may be why we had a dog. It clearly wasn’t because they loved dogs,they tolerated them on good days,ignored them the rest of the timeand the good days were few if any. I never asked for…


  • WHAT’S IN A NAME?

    He only wants to knowmy spiritual name, “your falseworld name is of no matter.” I tell him I have only one name,the one my parents gave me,and it has worked to this point quite well, and no one has eversuggested I might need another,although my Jewish friends have two. “No,” he says, “your spiritual nameisn’t…


  • A SIMPLE SONG

    It’s simple enough to write a song,that’s what I heard him say,and though I doubted that whollyhe say try, just give it a day. I promised I would try to writebut I knew that I’d fail in timefor even Leonard Cohen nowand then used a subtle rhyme and that is not something for whichI was…


  • SPACED OUT

    The question you must answer,and the one question I am certainyou cannot answer correctly is this: Does space define usor do we define space? Hints, of course, abound but we,myself included, fail or choosenot to see them or outright deny them. We are all comfortable at home,the adventurous among us declarethat wherever they are is…


  • SOMETHING NEW

    When I was a child, my motherrepeatedly told me that I mustlearn something new each day. I knew better than to point outthat it was absurd to callfor novel behavior by repetition. So I took the path of least resistanceand each day grabbed a randomvolume of the World Book Encyclopedia, opened to any page and…


  • HEAVEN, ONLY SLIGHTLY OUT OF REACH

    God is fixed in the firmamentseen as puppet master by somepatrician uncle, small childendlessly shifting blocksin new, transitory universes.All things recede from a point,have since the creationand that point, dimensionlessis God, vast and infinite.It swings lazily, back, fortha needle in its cusp tracinglines in the bed of sandin constant motion as weand earth, and all…


  • FREEZE FRAME

    When you see a photograph of a dropof water hitting a still pond, you realizethat it is nothing at all like what you see. The photo freezes time, and that is whywe are so taken, for we want nothing morethan to slow or stop that unerring arrow for we know all too well where its…


  • NOT SLEEPING NOW

    The kid is late again today, but thatis sadly not unusual, the old man said.I ought to get rid of him, but I knowhe needs the job to feed his family. In the meanwhile, I’ll now haveto hobble down to the meadowand hope my collie, who’s as old as I,is up to the job of…


  • BLUE ON BLUE

    The sun is shining brightly today,and the sky, with only the oddpassing cloud, is that certain blue. Do not ask me to describe that certainblue, but be assured it is not exactlythe blue that you are imagining right now. Even if I would describe it, in someinfinite detail, your vision of itwould at best be…


  • OUT OF THE NURSERY

    The one question that has never hada proper answer still bothers me.Actually it gives rise to multiple questionswhich synergistically expand my displeasure. I get she had a lamb, and I don’t questionwhy, nor why hers was little, full size lambsare far more common, and seriouslywhat did she do, bleach it every few days? But those…