A New Bridge

This poem I wrote for the wedding of my stepson to his fiancée, but as much as I tried to make it ready, the poem only came into form a few days afterward, as I was raking leaves in November. I gave it to them on Thanksgiving.

Sideways Boy

The recording of these three tales comes from a cd my brother-in-law, James Creel, produced in 2008. It is a work of beauty, and I could not be more grateful to him. I wrote and learned “Sideways Boy” and then told it at an open mike in Seattle. Shortly thereafter I told it at a Saturday Gathering in Edmonds (agatheringofmen.org). Its end is open–in the way of men’s work that we do in the Gathering.

The Blue Stone

Many folktales deal with the effects of war on surviving soldiers, and what they may or may not be able to carry in war’s aftermath. This is what I wanted to portray in the writing. And I have learned that in healing trauma of any sort there is often a bit of magical realism involved.

Water

After I wrote this little tale and told it a few times I discovered the Buddhist tale on which it is based, a tale that must have been in the air when it came to me by half-forgotten conversation. But the nugget stayed in the pan, and I was able to stamp a kind of coin, my own version, from the centuries-old tale.