On Hiatus

When cartoonists take a break, the newspaper recycles some of their old comic strips. In some cases, a reader feels as if he or she has slipped in time, and what’s happened has unhappened. Appropriate for a hiatus, I suppose. What a break it’d be to undo [...]

Haiku Sonnet: Reading Autobiography

A book bobs in kelp,
spine arched, face invisible,
a drowned raft of pulp.
A trick of aging—
memory swells like something
half underwater.
What author is what
he says? What ocean bulges
in fading moonlight?
What trunk, lined with lies
and resolutions, opens
willingly, so wide,
to swallow more than it holds?
Waves touch to withdraw.

My Daily Diffusion Experiment

I knew I was sick when I found myself mourning the disappearance of “feed stats” on my WordPress dashboard. I tell myself, if I want to be a read, writing something worthwhile should be my only concern. Do that, and the statistics can take care of themselves. Still, [...]

Haiku Sonnet: 3 Years of 1 Haiku a Day

I crowd the landscape
with what haiku lit and left
burning, accidents
that, like shipwrecks, won’t
move. They settle. They don’t wait
for discovery
or another fate—
they mark a map so filled with
notation, it can
no longer be read.
The blackbird leaves something to
taste night. By the door
a bloom withers, its color
igniting the sky.

A Foolish Hobgoblin

The most interesting words cast multiple shadows. Recently, I wanted to praise someone for having strong convictions and explored the web to find the implications of that word “conviction.” I wondered if I would be expressing approval by using it.
I discovered two things:
1. I’m not sure I [...]

Haiku Sonnet: 17 Year Cicadas

Every seventeen
summers, cicada study
the world like winged eyes
and then mate. Does one
task rest on the other—life
to see if life will
still be possible?
Or does our light fill them up—
make them so heavy
with love—flying seems
wasted time? They couple near
shells of former selves,
wary of darkness,
certain of their ends.

Iraqi War Fiction

One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

But I think the Vietnam War freed me and other writers, because it made our leadership and our motives seem so scruffy and essentially stupid. [...]

Haiku Sonnet: Robert Falcon Scott

Keep my eyes open
for white’s absolute—follow
resolve like slack rope:
These broad bowls of new
snow are yesterday’s footprints,
unread notes scattered
during yesterday’s
march to purgatory. I’ve
prayed for calm and found
longing ebb. Over
the next rise, God sits waiting
for his own rescue,
rubbing faces into snow
then rubbing them out.
*Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) was British naval officer and polar explorer. [...]

On Being Dad

Before my son was born, a former colleague told me parenting was an education in body fluids, and for the first few years, he seemed prescient. You forget there’s so much in a person that can come out.
My response to these emissions was quick and solicitous. When I’m [...]

Haiku Sonnet: A Boy’s Discovery

He found the beetle’s
empty torso in the grass
and thought the brittle
bottle might hold new
inhabitants, lost patrols
from ant colonies
now home asleep,
families of tired fleas
sick of jumping, or
maybe a precious
liquid that’d rouse the world,
the one drop needed
to make hearts strong and
bring smiles around him.