We walked a lane in Wales one morn in MayOur eyes took note of blooms on shrubs quite near.We sniffed some sprigs near Hay on Wye that day,Each bush had scents and smells both clear and dear. A whiff was like old books on stands and racks,  Each big thick tome could match that scent so strong.And we had smelled a few in bins and stacksThe smell was just the same, we were not wrong. In rooms where we would sit to read and...

"I adore you" The words were spokenheard and acceptedwith gratitude and delight Not always offered aloud in the pasteven when understood within the trust of a heart in need The adoration of a chorus of friends and lovers from lifethat passed sincerely revealed The latestto betenderedthis approbation in wordsas the solace of destined sublimity and jubilantembrace The embrace of certitude and affection Rememberedtruly in th...

Sunday morning, cold, damp and miserable. The dark rain-clouds which had, less than an hour previously, let fall a deluge of freezing rain upon the fields and hills surrounding the small Pennine village, were beginning to break. Their stark edges becoming wisps of pale grey. For the men and women who had gathered around the well-kept war memorial, the weather was a mere inconvenience. Nothing would keep them from remember...

Oh, yes. I remember drawing myself up as tall as possible and leaning over slightly to peer into his rebellious, anti-parent smirking eyes. I said, "I need to know the color of your eyes for the police report plus I need your parent's phone number just in case my little girl is different when you bring her home." The boy and I connected, for sure…and I knew my daughter would be safe on her first date with a seventeen-year...

Battle joined. Thunder. Smoke and grape. Galloping horses. Pride of France.   Wave upon wave. Silver blinding. They rode. Crasing upon Red sticks waiting in the sun.   Flashing steel. Rattle of musketry. Friends and foes. Tangled. In deaths throes.   As I wrote this. The sounds. The images. Screaming horses. Haunt me.  

What seek ye? What dreams do you chase? New latitudes, a new meridian? This daily life is too quotidian? So real that it turns out surreal? No midnight love shares your embrace? The king has masked his tyrant’s face. You put yourself in Hamlet’s place? Take it to the limit? And Beyond?Or instead, Could you be dead? Could it be you died one summer day? Summertime blue and sandy, Autumn windy and gold. Died and left those s...

Songs of Youth My thin memories were born Among the whispering grasses Of an Indiana field sloping down To drink from a nameless creek.   They were suckled by jiggers And sung to by whippoorwills and crickets Under a weeping willow by the creek And endless summers of warm sunlight.   Hopes and expectations shot across the night sky And sometimes danced real slow Pressed against young girls with hair like wheat And tissue...

Sounds. Voices. Tingling. “I saw a twitch …” “… His eyelids are fluttering …” “How are we doing today Mr. Stavros? You gave us quite a scare, didn’t he Mrs. Stavros?” The young woman addressing him was dressed in a pale blue pajama holding a clipboard with pen poised to note something indicative. Off to the left side of his visual space was an older woman who seemed to stare intently at him. The younger woman was more att...

“What can I do for you?” “Well, Professor Palmer, I’ve been browsing the Internet and came across your work on false memories and external indicators differentiating false and true memories,” Axel answered the man sitting behind the oversized mahogany desk. “That was based on research and clinical experience with childhood traumas such as those of rape or incest victims,” the professor explained. Axel laughed, “That’s not...

Standing on the cliff edge early on that spring mornHe watched the sun rise over the rim of the world,Painting the cliffs golden in the clear light of dawn.How he envied the sea birds who with wings unfurledLeft their craggy roosts to soar up into the sky, To float unrestrained on unseen cushions of air,Free as the gentle zephyrs that carried them highAbove his stooping form burdened by age and care. There was a time when...

The concept we invented Within the human mindThe passage of our livesIs Time for everyone  It seems that Time is warping Keeps warping as we age It bendsContorts To make us loseThe fabric of our days The fabric The material From which our life is made Remembrance of the magic of traveling down new lanesNew pathways ExplorationsNew vistas we have viewed Among them are the memories we keep within a vaultThe treasure chest o...

This reminiscent story was inspired by the forum thread, “What kind of car did you drive in high school?”   When I was a young lad in Texas, my dad made me work weekends and summers for his construction company. He used to “pay” me a dollar a day to help my uncle clean up job sites in the hot Texas sun. At the end of the week, he would deduct all my lunches and drinks. There were times I would end up with less than a doll...

Running at full tilt, all out, across the sandy shore for the very first time.  Unleashed and released and giving it all he has to complete the puppy race. The very first time will live in his canine heart and mind forever. Along that sandy, classic, ecstatic beach. The new memories are formed. New ones to add to the old. For when there are only memories that remain when one of us is gone. For when none of us can run full...

Crossings   and remembering a school of fish, calm and lazy, and of wanting their serenity so bad I ALMOST jumped overboard, remembering that everything was as it should have been, … as these thoughts drift through me like forgotten snowflakes blowing ‘cross the highway   and panic as a deer leaps in front of me, Kamikaze reflex check, stupid doe… and how graceful is her sprinting running to safety as indeed she should ha...

Memories everywhere. I used to try and put them away or keep them safe, Not sharing. Such a part of me. Making me who I am. What my life has become. Doesn't mean I can't make new ones. I can share them all.   Never ending memories, I have not lost.   In a thousand different ways, never will I forget. Forever missed and always loved.  Memories I hold on