“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole.” The Over-Soul – Ralph Waldo Emerson In the great scheme of life, I don’t know much about death. However, I think I have found a way to put the proverbial round peg of life into the...
When first Autumn came, The air turned cool, working its elemental magic. Vivid valleys held fast as a rule, Not swayed by change so tragic. Dimensional clouds stilled, The Earth turned round, slipping on its axis by degree. And I not hearing the astral sound, Supposed an echo o’er a galactic sea. A leaf lingered...
I am from egg whites, From Taste of Inspiration hummus and Blue Moon beer. I am from a 3-acre lot on a dead-end road, where native and acquired flora and fauna fill the yard and air. I am from the Firebush and the aged-Hedge Apple trees that retired many years ago from being a fence row. ...
Get that frown off your head‘Cause you’re a long time deadLife goes on and on and on The Kinks – Life Goes On Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is long dead. In fact, at this writing, he is 141 years dead, nearly double the 75 years he lived. He was born in the Portland...
Gann Academy is some 555 miles north north-east of Stink Hill in the Greater Boston area (Waltham). The school mascot is a Red Heifer, rallying support for teams ranging from basketball to ultimate frisbee. The school slogan is “Who Will You Become?” The grownups and founders tout the school as a “pluralistic model of Jewish...
There are 300 index cards buried somewhere in the old Jefferson County landfill. These 3 x 5 cards of Supreme Court cases were part of my strategy for doing well in a constitutional law course my senior year at Shepherd University (nee College). It was not just a law course. It was my academic love...
As summer 1972 came to a close, there was a notable movement away from Pearl in the can to pot when I returned to El Paso after basic training. I had a couple of weeks before reporting to jump school in Georgia. I worked on improving my running and partying endurance. The former was more...
Oh, to own a brim. Not just any sky you please, But one becoming my demeanor. A casual statement as it were. A prelude fit for gods. Those mythological creations Not your monolithic almighty. A lamppost, a silhouette, brim tilted, Bogarting Prince Albert’s cigarette. Smoke dancing round the face. The trolley passing through the fog,...
Lore suggests that in the shadow of the Civil War, communities, North and South, held springtime tributes to their fallen soldiers, decorating graves with flags and fresh flowers. It became to be called Decoration Day, first officially observed May 30, 1868. In 1971, as the Vietnam war played out fully on the evening news, a...
I reported to Fort Myer, Virginia on January 16, 1974. In a fill-in-the-name letter to my father, Captain Thomas S. Jeffrey III, Commanding said congratulations were in order not only for my selection to the 3d United States Infantry, the Old Guard, but for my assignment to Company E (Presidential Honor Guard). I was at...