January 19, 2023 – I meander along the display of silent auction items, looking for those one or two items I might want to bid on. Mostly, I’m enjoying the hunt and the display of art work at the Chamber of Commerce Gala and Silent Auction. I recognize the names of...

As 2022 straggled to an end, I made plans to clean out the Blue Room. The Blue Room is that catch-all room in the house where an assortment of stuff seems to multiply. After four years in this house, it’s finally time to sort through what’s left in that room and make...

“I think of the poem, the poet, and poetry itself as separate entities.”-Terrance Hayes, “The Art of Poetry,” The Paris Review, fall, 2022 Writing poetry is a solitary act. I welcome the time alone to dream, to write, to get words on paper (and on the screen) and play...

“A healthy society does not ban ideas and it does not ban books.” – Nikole Hannah-Jones   I love to read. Often, I choose the company of a good book over the company of another human. I am fortunate to have grown up in a family that also liked to read and encouraged...

Not yet 6:30 a.m. and I’m sitting in my comfy chair, drinking my first cup of coffee. The lamp on the table beside me brightens the room, but the outside world remains dark. When I look out through the sliding glass door that leads to the deck all I see is my...

“The weather is unpredictable. Be prepared,” the voice on the radio announced into the gray morning as I drove west from southeastern North Carolina. Hurricane Ian was taking aim at the South Carolina Coast and the area I was leaving was under a tropical storm...