We trudged down to the bank, a short distance from our lodging, and found a perfectly quiet, though not frozen, Delaware river. It was one of those still winter days when vision takes on a crystalline quality, and the houses on the Jersey side transmitted their images to our eyes with conspicuous limpidity. Downstream on … Continue reading On the Delaware
Winter is a revelation of form. Matter exhales, tightens its shroud; gnaws its bitter logic. Only the bright ghosts of forms stand relevant and alert. Everything drips. This is a time when conversations tend to get to the root of things. Celestial bodies appear closer, harder, and earthly things more like them: decisive, catastrophic. The … Continue reading Local snow
Winter. Ordinary time. The frozen space between Christmas and Lent, scraping ice off the car window at 6am, the tail end of night, when everything has a crystalline, hyper-real look and my own breath is the only thing moving. I wonder how the rabbits can sleep this time of year. Indoor life is a … Continue reading Winter
Call it the Montauk of Pennsylvania. We travelled across our brick shaped state to the end and stared out across the gray abyss of Lake Erie from Presque (“almost”) Isle under an off-and-on rain. We arrived on the state’s last day of indoor dining and mourned the impending ban with generous strangers. The next day … Continue reading Erie
Exploring Pittsburgh in early December with my sweetheart. It was bitter cold, and the sun mostly stayed behind a wall of gray clouds, but we had some unexpected discoveries. All in all, a beautiful city that will open up for those with patience or nothing else to do.