Dreamers Rise

As this anxious summer wears on I've been making regular visits to a little pond not far away, one that, in spite of its diminutive si...

(The Emperor Rudolf II addresses his lover, by means of a mutual dream.) "In the dark hours of the day, when the chaos of the age wei...

From singer, musician, bilingual songwriter, and all-around good guy Zachary Richard, a beautiful, moving, and timely new song of hope. Dow...

Robert Hendrickson, Rector at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona (via Daughter Number Three ): This is an awful man, wavi...

I'll always associate pink lady's-slipper or moccasin flower with my childhood, because there was a secluded spot in the woods about...

Christy Moore : When I go to West Clare I can see the music in the hills and stony fields. Today I look out upon the Sheep's Head and o...

I've never read The Decameron before, but coming across vivid passages from Boccaccio's own introduction to the work quoted in the ...

The Plague: During all the late summer and throughout the autumn there could daily be seen moving along the road skirting the cliffs above t...

I've discovered that my old Picassa slideshow of images from the Augsburg Book of Miracles no longer works, but rather than try to recr...

Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, January 1349: The contagious pestilence of the present day, which is spreading far and wide, ...

Lockdown + one month, and counting.

More than fifteen years ago I posted a brief note about the Balkan folk-song "Mečkin Kamen" (The Bear's Rock) and its commemo...

Ireland's TG4 has broadcast a superb documentary about the master uilleann piper Liam O'Flynn, a beloved figure whose modest mann...

Herodotus: The Carthaginians also tell us that they trade with a race of men who live in a part of Libya beyond the Pillars of Hercules. On...

Eduardo Halfon: You won’t write anything about this, my father asked or said, index finger raised, his tone somewhere between a plea and a ...

If you haunt the woods on a regular basis you get to recognize the sounds animals make when they're disturbed by your presence. No n...

Herman Melville: All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swi...

There's a strange calm today, with some cloud cover but no wind, and the street outside has been largely quiet all day. We're keepin...

We've had no face-to-face contact with other people for nine days now, and in New York State, where we live (and which now has the highe...