Daydreaming on the Porch
by Oswego
Entries 525
Page 1 of 21
Christmas greetings and Happy Holidays!
Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light. Albert Schw...
The leaves fall, fall as from far, Like distant gardens withered in the heavens; They fall with slow and lingering descent. And in the nights the heavy Earth, too, falls From out the stars into ...
This entry is going to take me back almost more than 50 years to my high school days in New Orleans. I am not sure why, at this time, the particular person I am going to write about, or the pain...
The YouTube Universe and its Time Travelers to the Past and Future
We are legion. For some of us YouTube is IT! We’ve arrived at the one destination on the Internet that has it all. Its vast riches are there for the taking. Naturally, there’s a lot of junk...
More on a subject that preoccupies me even more in old age
Twenty-five years ago in my journal, I wrote this about a conversation with a co-worker: Someone, oh so gently, implied recently that perhaps I dwell a bit too much in the past, and that is an ...
Photography is my passion in life. I have always, since I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of New Orleans, taken photographs. This includes taking all my own photos during the years I worke...
The world is too much with us… William Wordsworth The past month has been very stressful. The burdens of the world seem to oppress and overwhelm me. Now more than ever I rely on the nature s...
A Whopper of a Tale, but True
Long ago, before I ceased eating at fast food restaurants, a Burger King Whopper with fries and a Coke was my favorite fast-food meal. Thinking about those delicious, large, flame-broiled burge...
I never had a house that was my own. For almost my whole life I have rented apartments and have been quite content with that. Although I am a porch person by sentiment and nature, I only once l...
A creek that nurtured my soul and lifted my spirits during bad times
When I lived in southern Mississippi, there was a lot of turmoil in my brief time as an instructor at the university there, and I had to tough it out for a year. It was the most toxic and miser...
I’ve watched a lot of videos of the destruction all over the mountains of NC, but this is down-to-earth one of the best. This man and his neighbors have a strong spirit, but I simply don’t kno...
From Chubby Checker to “Maggie May”
(Author’s note: I am confidently composing this, knowing only too well that no one under 40 reads these essays, and so most of you will know what I am talking about and not consider me too anc...
Unless you live up in the Appalachian Mountains and foothills of five states devastated by wind and flooding from Hurricane Helene, it is almost impossible to grasp how many lives were lost, ...
Is this the Pinnacle of life. No seriously. I mean look, what is your highest ambition? Is it this? No, no it’s not. You know this. It might be the highest ambition of your chemical mind, your ...
A weekly ritual that saves me from the abyss of loneliness
Sunday is my one social outing of the week. Religiously, I head out to visit my brother and his lady friend at the beach. I’ve been doing this for three years. He is a great cook and prepares...
The Voyage of Life
My life is based on a true story. Author not known Seven years into retirement, I find myself looking back on the past more and more often, thinking of my past friends, jobs and careers with in...
Part 1 https://www.prosebox.net/entry/2089068/ “The Sum of Trifles,” Title of a book By Julia Ridley Smith Here in Part 2 I continue my inventory and annotation of the contents of a selected ...
Suburbia, Part 2: Thoughts about home
Home is the question you fnally answer. Home is the hollow you finally fill. Home is the hearth where you warm your soul when everything around you is coming to pieces. Home is the place that yo...
Suburbia, Part 1: Where I grew up
Suburbia: land of middle class dreams and hopes for the “good life” fulfilled. Good schools. No crime. No gangs. Just a lot of invisible angst. Shady streets, two–car garages, neatly manicured l...
Justice is sometimes sweet indeed
Occasionally I come across stories in the news that are so deliciously offbeat and strange, in a humorous way, of course, that I have to share them. Here’s one. You know how when you’re driving ...
But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, And hides the green hill in an April shroud; Then glut thy sorrow on...
Magical waterfalls: there is nothing in Nature quite as sublime
One of the most magical experiences in the mountains is the possibility of coming across a small, unexpected waterfall as you drive winding dirt or gravel roads up to higher elevations. The air ...
One day you’ll look to see I’ve gone For tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun The Beatles In the summer of 1974 a group of friends and I put out a newspaper at the University we were all at...
Let my mind become silent and my thoughts come to rest. I want to see all that is before me. And in self forgetfulness, I become everything. Joseph Cornell. I acquired early in life a sense...
The enduring mystique and allure of abandoned old houses
One of the best memories I have from the decade of the 1970s after I had moved from New Orleans to South Carolina, was heading out to the rural countryside outside Columbia with two new friends t...
Book Description
Short essays from the interior of my life.