Here on the high desert prairie, the grasses are a flat dry tan, and we won’t see green again all winter. But as the ground lies fallow, it’s as if the sky stands up even taller and says watch this! Each sunrise is a pink and yellow watercolor wash that starts as safety-vest orange with … Read more
Today is a big anniversary for me. Here is the thing about anniversaries; they only matter to the ones having them. We might congratulate married couples if anyone outside remembers the date. We mark the anniversary of years at work, looking toward retirement. Birthdays are anniversaries. Some of us celebrate sobriety milestones. Or remember the … Read more
I woke up introspective on my last full day in Paris. It’s the same way I wake up at home. I got ready to leave for the day and wrapped a scarf around my neck. I started doing that after my first Paris haircut forty years ago, and have been doing it ever since. Fashion … Read more
Paris is a city full of statues of horses. They’re everywhere, I noticed on my first visit. The statues are still there now, but stands are being built for the upcoming Olympics. No, that isn’t why I went. Paris and I have history. It isn’t just my love for Collette. This is the teen angst … Read more
Words about friendship and death ahead. There, you’re warned. I’m still on vacation, but I’m going to talk about grieving and my human friend Elaine. I label her that way because I usually write about horses. Please smile now. This isn’t a sad essay. Friendship has always felt complicated to me. I keep the necessary … Read more
It’s springtime in the Rockies. The time change was last weekend, so I’m waking up at three am now, but there’s more light in the evening. I can see tiny bits of green if I bend over for a close look. Earlier this week we were out in shirtsleeves and now we’re halfway through a … Read more
It’s before dawn on a Friday morning and I’m in an RV park in Amarillo, Texas. I’ve been mud-wrestling with a cold for a couple of weeks now, but I’ll make it home tonight. I can hear a train whistle close by, some eighteen-wheelers getting an early start, and my dog snoring, belly-up in … Read more
I don’t know if I told you… I wrote a new book. An Undomesticated Sequel to Stable Relation
This blog will get back to some sort of new “normal” soon. What a year, huh? For now, just a note to say how grateful I am for your time here with us. I so appreciate you. Thre is a new book out and this is an audio version of the title poem, Horse. Woman. … Read more
Book Release! Available Now! Horse. Woman. Poems from Our Lives “It was a tough life if you was useless.” -Leafa Numbers Blake My grandmother proudly claimed she had delivered more foals and calves than any woman in early 1900s North Dakota. Like her, we’ve found a purpose building our lives, sometimes elbow deep in dirt … Read more