Category: Columns
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Thoughts While Eating Breakfast at the Waffle House in North Carolina
I’m starting to use words like sweetheart and darlin’ and the woman at the counter puts some scrambled eggs in front of me, calls me sweetie The workers stack the Texas toast, scoop the grits scribble down orders and take our dirty plates I sit and sip and scribble in a notepad and think of…
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Are You Having Fun?
Since we are biologically wired to avoid pain and seek pleasure, then it stands to reason that if food is our only source of pleasure we will overeat! Why wouldn’t we?
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Good morning
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Remembering Poet Al Robles and his love for Community (1930-2009)
Tony Robles remembers his uncle Al Robles on the occasion of his birthday.
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Happy Birthday Poet Al Robles (1930-2009)
Poet, servant of the people. How you served plates of rice and fish and poetry that stuck to the mind and nourished the heart in a place called Manilatown. Your love for the elders of our community was always true. You served the food of love and compassion amidst those who would come and pluck…
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Good Morning
Wild geese sharing the pond with semi-wild Muscovies this morning.
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Remembering Goodie’s Greetings
Cleven “Goodie” Goudeau (1932-2015) was a talented painter and cartoonist, art director, and the creator of the first African American greeting card line in the United States in the 1960s. Goodie’s friend, and film Director TJ Walkup, follows Goodie through New York City and Oakland, California, discussing the successful greeting card line that made history.
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There’s No Frigate Like a Book (Thoughts on Writing by a recent MFA Graduate)
Emily Dickinson wrote: There’s no frigate like a book. William Shakespeare said, For nimble thought can jump both sea and land. I think the sea is an apt metaphor for our endeavor—our art. Each time we sit down to write, we embark on a journey. We often times do not know what our destination will…
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The Woman Who Looked Like Nina Simone
You caught my eye even with your mask a pandemic badge of the mouth yet your eyes spoke as you moved about the store black woman under the glare of florescent light, wading in your own music, your own rhythm while the canned music played over the thrift store speakers And Nina’s voice comes through…
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Good morning
A foggy sunrise on pond with Muscovy and bird sounds.
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Artificial Intelligence (After reading of the man who wrote and illustrated a children’s book using only AI)
I don’t want artificial intelligence, artificial pain, artificial love. Even the artificial flowers about us have grown weary and are dying for a touch of real mist, a drop of real rain. I don’t want artificial light and artificial birds singing and aritificial poems recited by artificial poets. I don’t want artificial love and friendship…
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Relief through Release
Think about the huge relief felt when a BIG stressor is resolved. Stress is released, and relief flows in. Releasing negative self talk leaves us energized, more confident, and less reactive to the world.
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Plain Old Fashioned Donuts from a Cambodian Owned Donut Shop
With the old fashioned donut in my mind, it rolls 3000 miles and I follow counter clockwise and come to a Cambodian owned donut shop, the place with the best donuts. I buy 4 and the cashier puts it in a brown paper bag. She smiles and I tell her I can’t get donuts like…
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Celebrating Black History at Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church
Saturday Feb. 25, 2pm, Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church 901 Robinson Terrace Hendersonville, NC 28792
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Muscovy Nesting Season