WITNESS

September 20th. Some Words about the Appalachian Trail. Through-Hikers (they) and Trail Crews (we) call it the AT. – To those who participate in it, the Appalachian Trail takes on a certain mythological vestment.  Its champions complete over 2,100 miles of walking, usually in the summer.  They move constantly.  Even during sleep when their minds and their dreams plan the next days progress – where to get water, where to …

August 26th Laurence Birdsey is the director of BECA.  He runs the show stateside and makes everything in Honduras possible.  He’s also really nice, and let Sam and I stay in his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (sleeping in his bed mostly) for an entire week.  Whenever Sam and I would leave the house, Laurence’s parting words would be along the lines of “Don’t do anything nutty.” …

August 26th Goodbye Lake Champlain, My bathing suit is still wet with you; drying on the backseat of the car.  Our summer week together was lovely.  I swam in you each morning and several times throughout the day.  You were always there, sometimes tranquil, sometimes grumpy. You never said no.  You couldn’t speak. Occasionally, when I visited, there were others.  Young children and adults, jumping into you from docks and …

I’m thinking about pie. Rhubarb, and the cribbage board my Grandfather made to carry during WWII It is in my back pack He is in the rehab center with a sharp mind and a slow body I made a rhubarb pie to take to him with rhubarb picked from his garden and his crust recipe for him to eat and share as he had done so many times during my …

August 9th, 2010 At dawn I stand at the water’s edge a foot above the surface whose rippled mirror reflects the pink of the first rays of morning sunlight The scene develops in my eye as fish rise and idle boats shift I notice ripples that over centuries have smoothed the stone on which I am standing the lake reaching out of the lake I feel cold sleep still clings …

Baltimore August 8th, 2010 The important thing about Baltimore is that it is the Greatest City in America It says it on the bus benches You can sit on them and you don’t have to believe what they tell you But the important thing about Baltimore is that it is the Greatest City in America – The Douglas Family welcomed us as though we were 5th and 6th siblings. Doing …