Blokes Who Write Bad Poetry

On July 26, 1875, John Shine clicked the reins to spur his team of four horses up Funk Hill. The California sun shone hot on his ten-gallon hat, and he sweated inside his white shirt and leather vest as the stagecoach rattled along the rutted road. A few minutes...

The Poetree

“I think it needs to be a little higher,” Susan says. She’s looking up into the apple tree on our church lawn, where my son Jack; his friend, also named Jack (we’ll call him Jack Y, to minimize confusion); and my daughter, Jane, are perched on branches of varying...

Fighting Dragons

Every Wednesday, my kids and I go to the local library. Every Wednesday my daughter heads straight for the Fairy Tales/Folk Tales/Mythology bays of the children’s section. She scans the spines of hundreds of books filled with beautiful princesses, ancient kings, gods...