Awful But Cheerful

Awful But Cheerful

by | Apr 1, 1996 | Essays

All the untidy activity continues,/awful but cheerful.  –Elizabeth Bishop The Yellowstone River begins near the Continental Divide and roars down its famous rocks to the plains of eastern Montana. There, beneath a slower current its stones grow ghostly, then fad...
On Waste Lonely Places

On Waste Lonely Places

by | Jun 22, 1994 | Essays

I live in an old neighborhood near a small downtown, just beyond the reach of the last parking meters. Any of the houses here would look stately and haunted perched on a hill somewhere, but as it is they’re all serried together down the long city blocks: most gables...
Up North

Up North

by | Apr 1, 1993 | Essays

We never owned a cottage on a lake, though my parents knew plenty of people who did. In the years I was growing up, our family sometimes visited acquaintances on one lake or another, always arriving with extra food and towels and never lingering for more than a couple...