creative nonfiction flash — In Spring 2020, not long before the pandemic came crashing down, I published a couple of new pieces in Willows Wept Review. This one is a bit like a prose poem, yet non-fiction based, so I settled on “creative non-fiction flash.” The title “Return to Forever” is an allusion to…

Recalling the anxious, despairing, fragile weirdness that was Summer 2020. — “If I have a care in the world, I have a gift to bring.” Indigo Girls, “Hammer and a Nail” It was a sunny Sunday at the end of May, and we needed to feel some nature. Since the pandemic crisis hit, the problem has been finding a park not…

For a couple of months in high school circa 1982, my friend Dave and I were in a four-piece rock band. Dave on guitar, me on drums, Mike on bass and Jim on piano. We played in public only once, our high school senior variety show. We tried to think…

Practice doesn’t have to make perfect. A story of guitar picking, drumming, embryonic journeys, and learning to be here, now — In Spring 2019, we bought a Martin guitar, a budget priced DX1RAE dreadnought. For the money, it’s nice sounding — sweet, resonant, clear, rich with harmonic overtones. I determined at the time to not let this guitar sit unused. It wants to be played. But after a couple months of…