Cyprus Log: Skouriotissa
“Ah! La Iglesia!” A smile creased the stern face of the Paraguayan guard at the sentry post. In his hands he held my little album of pictures open to the one with my mother standing beside the little...
View ArticleCyprus Log: Hellenic Mines
The office building of Hellenic Copper Mines, Ltd., is a serene oasis perched among the hills of broken ore at the top of the mountain of copper ore that is Skouriotissa. Palm trees welcomed us to the...
View ArticleReconciling Past and Future in Cyprus
Our American friend Pippa Vanderstar had put us in touch with Avo Mangoian, one of Cyprus’s leading photographers, who has a store in the old city of Nicosia not far from the Cyprus Mail offices. Avo...
View ArticleCyprus Antiquities and Art
One of the things that has fueled our long interest in visiting Cyprus is the collection of glass and pottery that my grandparents brought back with them and that has been in my family for three...
View ArticleLefkaritiki
When we returned from Cyprus we got out the old tablecloth my grandmother had bought there ninety years ago and admired its intricate lacework. It had new depth and meaning now that we had discovered...
View ArticleThe Mesabi
Minnesota’s Mesabi Range is historically the largest deposit of iron ore in the world. Arcing across the northeastern part of the state, it has been delivering iron ore to America’s steel mills since...
View ArticleEarth Gasping
On October 6 I gathered with other writers and avid readers at Grateful Steps Publishers Bookstore in Asheville, NC, to celebrate the appearance of another issue of Fresh, a literary magazine edited...
View ArticleTitanic Revelations
Sometimes we don’t know where certain messages come from as we muse, fingering some words to give our intuitions substance. I think this poem comes from the haunting reverberations of the Newtown...
View ArticleZebras, Robots, and Homer
After a five year absence we have returned to our beloved Cape Town, land of the humped zebra. No it’s not a cross between a dromedary and a zebra. But it does cause a real bump in the road if you hit...
View ArticleMountains, Men, Mines and Minerals
We have just returned from six weeks in the Western Cape of South Africa and ten days exploring central Namibia, its neighbor to the north. While it is the people in all their rich diversity and...
View ArticleTURNINGS: POEMS OF TRANSFORMATION
I am very happy to announce that a collection of my poems, TURNINGS: POEMS OF TRANSFORMATION, has been brought out by Wipf and Stock Publishers, of Eugene, Oregon. The striking cover does a fine job of...
View ArticlePrecious Cargo: Creation Flower
When Sylvia and I were planning our recent visit to South Africa, a garden committee at nearby Lake Junaluska Retreat and Conference Center asked if we might select, purchase, and arrange for shipping...
View ArticleTwo Experiences of Words
Twice a week this summer I go to our nearby community center to read to three children as part of their summer enrichment program. All are from Hispanic families. Their English is good enough that I...
View ArticleThe Learning Curve
You’re never too old to learn something. In the midst of more sober reflections (meaning of life, planetary destruction, state of American politics…), it’s good to focus on the simpler tasks in life....
View ArticleHjemkomst
Along with the terrible and gruesome loss of life we are witnessing in the Syrian civil war, nothing is more wrenching than people’s loss of home. The land of Syria has been home for people for many...
View ArticleAbiding in Hope
For some years I have been involved in circle conversations in my Methodist church about ways we as a congregation and as a global church might welcome ALL people and strive for greater justice for...
View ArticleA Tale of Two Capes
Last week Sylvia and I visited North Carolina’s Cape Fear region, the southern tip of the series of islands, shoals, and lagoons that form an elbow into the Atlantic, nudging the Gulf Stream toward...
View ArticleDesert Reflections
The electronic world makes it easy to forget the real world expanses of this planet. We just completed a 2400 mile road trip from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to Las Cruces, New Mexico. While...
View ArticleThe Bells of San Albino
We are spending the month of February in the little town of Mesilla, adjacent to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mesilla (pronounced “Meh-SEE-yah”), which means “little table,” was formed shortly after the end...
View ArticleGenerations in Mesilla
They call it Old Mesilla – the tightly settled grid of one- and two-storey adobe buildings gathered around the central plaza and its church. There is a “New Mesilla” stretching half a dozen blocks...
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