Crush rose petals between your fingers, or a mint leaf, and it expresses the beauty of its distinctive essence when it’s bruised. I think people can be like that, creating great art and literature out of poverty, sickness, prisons, wars and abuse. The children of MD Anderson Cancer Center write poems. Edward Hopper, a lonely New Yorker, painted lighthouses, railroad tracks, cafés and theaters that reflected his own reclus...

A bead of water rolls down the pane Logs roll byFive trucks in a rowOne letting his exhaust brake belchTrees line the highwayWaving branches like a cheering crowd at a raceCelebrating the exhaust brake's belch more ecstatically More beads roll down the windowA boy in an orange reflective vest runs to the pumpHe slouches against the rain until he's under the roofHe talks to a man inside the car and starts pumping the gasLa...

ChapterOne: LoAnn Aroo and Her Son A young married couple live in a sod and clay house on the plains. The house is mostly underground. Wide stairs lead down to a wooden pocket door that is inset with thick colored glass panels. The roof is steep and covered with clay tiles that match the color of the surrounding earth. Small round windows peep out from under the roof, at ground level. A thin thread of smoke still spins ou...

It was 1998, in a U. S. motor-pool on Zoeckler Station, South Korea. “…and the shine on your boots’ll catch the eye of Charlie and he’ll see you.,” Specialist Josh Thorton said in a comical croaky voice “ … and you know what happens when Charlie sees you.” “YOU’RE DEAD,” Bo and Josh said in unison. Actually they were Private Henderson and Specialist Thorton, but in Korea things tended to get less formal because we spent s...

Maybe I’m more sensitive about cockroaches than most other people because I was eighteen, in the army, before I ever saw one. I was working in the mess hall and I went to the broom closet to get a mop when the little monster chased me out. In Montana, only Deer Lodge Penitentiary has roaches, and there’s this guard that collects them and shellackes them to boards in posed courtroom scenes, fishing and hunting scenes, etc....

I was amazed when I learned that my Aunt Judy had been married to someone before Uncle Tom, forty years ago. Judy was taking care of some business at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Seattle. A man was staring at her. She got nervous. She panicked when he walked up to her. "Excuse me, I think we were married once," he said. She looked at his face for a long time. "Yes, I think we were."

I was appalled when I heard that Texas A&M students regularly threw old pianos on bonfires at their parties. What sacrilege. I would sit in my cozy living room and play my keyboard with the doors wide open while it rained and the sheeting sweep of rain would fill my house with magic. I would play deep into the night. I would play and my soul would grow calm. One day my door was kicked in and my keyboard was taken. I moved...

I had radio watch. I usually did four hours a night. I wrote letters by flashlight. The letters all had a box in the lower left corner with tick-marks that I slashed into the notebook paper every time I saw a falling star. Mars marched angrily across the Iraqi sky. "ROAD KNIGHT ONE . . . THIS IS BLACK HORSE . . .RADIO CHECK, OVER." came a crackling voice on the radio. We were supposed to do radio checks every hour, but it...

When I stumble upon ducks swimming in Lower Crow Creek, they fly away before I get very close. So it was unusual that this odd “duck” stayed. It was a big gray “duck” with an odd quack. My hound, a blood and red-bone cross, jumped in the water and swam up to it. The bird swam to me and I reached over the big gray bird with my fishing pole and poked my dog, to keep him from munching on the bird.  I called my hound out of t...

The lovers danced on the water One rippling One smoothing In an endless circle of rough and smooth The pretty one must be the goose, I thought White like a wedding dress Feathers delicate like lace The plain brown one must be the gander I looked for them every day And saw them Until they were gone I was emptier without them My arms propelled me One paddle stroke After another Up miles of green river I rested near a neighb...

Today I discovered that I'd rather get bitten by a parrot then to stand up to a friend.Nancy, Jack, and I were sitting on the front float of the boathouse talking. I stepped inside, to get sweet tea and glasses, and noticed that Jack's large blue macaw was standing on the stairs instead of on his perch. "Cheeko. What are you doing here?" The parrot gave me his cute look. I was guessing that he wanted to be put up on his r...

Someday, I want to be like my grandmother, Lois Fern. She is white, but grew up in the poor black part of a small Illinois town called Gilman. Her dad knew how to extract value from trash, and fix anything that was broken. During the Great Depression, his services were valuable. He established a profitable repair shop. In time, he became the local Chevy dealer. He wasn't an educated man, so he handed the paperwork and acc...

John Laud had one glass eye. The little round, shabby man was the mayor of Charlo, Montana. The population sign on the way into town said there were 822 people in Charlo, but they must have been counting the farmers for miles around. At the Charlo Cafe's worn white formica counter, John Laud rolled a four, Errnie Kraft rolled a two, Waylon Johnson rolled a four, Dan Stipe rolled a three, and Delyle rolled a six. "Why do I...

I'm sitting in a little cafe, the kind old people eat at. The waitress has given me a menu and she has returned to get my order, but I'm still reading it. "Are you ready? Or are you still making up your mind?" "Oh, Ummm, I think I want a roast beef sandwich and some soup. What is the soup of the day?" I say. "Split pea. Do you want a cup or a bowl?" "A bowl." I say with a smile. Memories are flooding back to me at the men...

The toddler falls, but he's made of rubber and bounces back up and learns, even if he cries.The tree falls and a new and stronger one grows in its place. A hawk flies at a dove, which is overwhelmed by fear and falls, and falling saves the dove's life. When the sun falls, rain falls, a leaf falls, the temperature falls, it's all part of the balance of everything. Nature is in endless cycles of rising and falling, like bre...