Tag: #NorthwoodsStories

  • Sounds Older than Sitar

    Sounds Older than Sitar

    Pulling the cord to start the Evinrude nothing happens. I pull again, and again, nothing. The sound of its cough, a serious protest, carries across the lake in a way that seems older than the sitar.

  • Blood Sound

    Blood Sound

    I’d been traveling for two days and was tired of being treated like a number. I’m at a cabin in northern Wisconsin, the Pacific of Hawaii still in me. Opening the door, I step over a creaking threshold, my boots landing on a green throw rug, a lily pad on the lake. Soon I’m listening…

  • A Northwoods Practice of Stillness, Light, and Listening: When Small is Beautiful

    A Northwoods Practice of Stillness, Light, and Listening: When Small is Beautiful

    Stories Emerge Like Bears is a forthcoming lyric memoir by Gregory Ormson, set in a Northwoods cabin where attention, labor, and place shape a life lived at human speed. Snowmelt drips from the roof. I watch long enough to feel the pace of winter loosening its grip, giving itself to spring. The water drips without…

  • Prime the Pump: What a Northwoods Cabin Taught Me About Learning and Attention

    Prime the Pump: What a Northwoods Cabin Taught Me About Learning and Attention

    To get anything from my students I had to prime the pump. They were just like the pump, squeaking and whining before finally being coaxed out of their shells to participate.

  • Stories Emerge Like Bears A Book Announcement

    Stories Emerge Like Bears A Book Announcement

    I’ve signed with Cornerstone Press to publish my lyric memoir Stories Emerge Like Bears Begins at a cabin without running water. You take hold of the red handle and work the pump. At first, there’s only sound, then rhythm takes hold and the water rises. I learned this by doing it at a place where…