Paging through the album, I stop at a photo of a…: Paging through the album, I stop at a photo of a dark-haired, bespectacled 50-year old wearing an orange hat and brown flannel shirt,…… read more...
It’s a place of ice and steel, and the Midwest is in me even if I am not in the Midwest. Carl Sandburg dramatized what I experience in the thick of middle America with his 1918 work, Cornhuskers.
Lay me on an anvil, O God
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar
Let me pry loose old walls
Let me lift and loosen old foundationsLay me on an anvil, O God
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper togetherTake red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through the blue nights into
White stars
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar
Let me pry loose old walls
Let me lift and loosen old foundationsLay me on an anvil, O God
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper togetherTake red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through the blue nights into
White stars
The aesthetic of tools grounding skyscrapers is what I love about the Midwest. It’s rootedness and wings, foundations and visions, bears and eagles. I attempt to find the tension of those contrasts and put them down on paper, hoping that once in a while I drive a nail that will hold a story together and help me embody stories that bend and shovel, reach and soar.
Currently working on a essays reaching back to the days of early railroading and rustic living.
Midwest
Paging through the album, I stop at a photo of a dark-haired, bespectacled 50-year old
wearing an orange hat and brown flannel shirt, suspenders resting off his
shoulders and to the side. His blaze-orange pants are unbuttoned at the waist
and stained with blood.
wearing an orange hat and brown flannel shirt, suspenders resting off his
shoulders and to the side. His blaze-orange pants are unbuttoned at the waist
and stained with blood.
He stands with two other hunters and they smile in front of
three deer hanging from a tall oak tree, brown leaves covering their November
hunting ground. Deer tongues are sticking out and their necks are stretched
upward like a branch. His trophy 8-pointer hangs by a rope tied over the
antlers. I walk to that tree and remember, dare I say portal those soggy boots,
that unshaven chin, that stern visage, that wry smile.
… read more... three deer hanging from a tall oak tree, brown leaves covering their November
hunting ground. Deer tongues are sticking out and their necks are stretched
upward like a branch. His trophy 8-pointer hangs by a rope tied over the
antlers. I walk to that tree and remember, dare I say portal those soggy boots,
that unshaven chin, that stern visage, that wry smile.
Midwest (Old Style Place)
But this message reverberates in the fabric of the
pine-wood cabin. It’s the soul inhabiting each inch on the property. Feeding
off stubbornness alone, The Old Style place continues to stand against the
encroachment of modernity and change. Its motto could be, “Fight Gravity.”
… read more... pine-wood cabin. It’s the soul inhabiting each inch on the property. Feeding
off stubbornness alone, The Old Style place continues to stand against the
encroachment of modernity and change. Its motto could be, “Fight Gravity.”
Midwest When Baseball Will Mean Everything Once Again, The Dunn County News April 12, 2015
http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/sports/local/when-baseball-will-mean-everything-once-again/article/_dfc1143c-19c7-528e-9e5f-7ebbf52cc071.html
… When baseball will mean everything once again : Dunn County News
Midwest This is how Illusion Works (Bear in the woods of Wisconsin)
Up here, a bear comes and goes as it will, so even a faint resemblance near the woodpile can trick one into thinking its real. My parent’s scare tactics worked, and the wooden carving of a black bear head tricked my brothers too because the chance of actually seeing a bear was lodged in the back of our minds. This is how illusion works: You believe through suggestion that you see what you don’t see but believe you have seen.
That bear was here. It walked past the pump next to the front door, and a photo proves it. Its tacked on the old Gibson
refrigerator with a sales magnet that says, “Patty Berkes, Edina Realty.” The Realtor’s photo on the card expresses dreams people have for lake front property
in the north woods: foreground birch trees and a winding trail with tall grass
leading to a log cabin, its dark wood corners joined in dovetail notches. This isn’t Edina, but the brokers are
here and they’re busy selling a dream.
This is how illusion works (Bear in the woods)… read more...
Midwest Guns R U.S. who is the boy inside the man holding the gun
Article published today by The Good Men Project.
http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/guns-r-u-s-wcz/
The good men project focuses on issues relevant to men and boys, helping them to be more aware of both their power for bad and good. It’s also a support site with advice for men, offering encouragement to boys and tips for everyone on the power of mentoring and mutual support. Check it out at The Good Men Project either on Facebook or on their Website.
My article might be called brief Social commentary on guns and the American fascination with them. Brief article includes reflections on hunting, guilt and fascination with guns, the mesmerizing power of a trigger, and the gun’s mystical draw, its polarizing reality. Link below and thanks for reading and passing along.
My son with the .16 guage Mossberg bold-action shotgun, the subject of this article.
