Morning time in the swamp pours like honey. The first hint of light serrates the darkness; shadows pliantly chip into opaque shapes....

If I had known I would be digging graves in my backyard, I would have evacuated for the hurricane. We did what everyone does when a...

My house smells like a pet store. Or maybe a dog kennel. It is the smell of three dogs who dislike baths but love to play, shed, and nap...

A languid mood occupied Wrightsville Beach at seven in the morning. A few cars paraded the streets. Shopkeepers unlocked grocery marts...

The creative life is the greatest life you shouldn’t bother with if you have a choice. It comes at you, stampeding down the slopes of...

You would think birds would be the main attraction on Bird Island. But they aren't. The main reason most people hike to Bird Island is to...

I’ve run out of ideas. I bounce from one notion to another. Maybe, I think, I’ll write a on flowers. But no, that’s dumb, another essay...

I am sitting where hatred and indoctrination rest against each other like two sleepy dogs lying on a sofa. Here, in this no-man’s-land,...

The more I think about it, I’m really quite extraordinary. This may seem a radical departure from my regular Ash Wednesday demeanor –...

The air was far too cold for an April morning. Any right-thinking person would have opened the door, felt the cold, turned around and...