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Author Archives: John Swinburn
Diagnosis
Yesterday, as I mindlessly wandered through postings on Facebook, I came across a notice telling me that an acquaintance had made a comment on the Facebook page of another person, a person I do not know and had never heard of. … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
6 Comments
Uneasy Certainty
We each treat our language as the only one, the single tongue suitable for humankind, yet we know with uneasy certainty that ours is one of thousands spoken on this tiny planet. We search the skies in the hope of finding answers, … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
3 Comments
Springboard
Yesterday, during an email exchange with a friend (who was aboard a train from Newark, bound for Atlantic City), we discussed his angst about being stuck on the train. He was annoyed that he had not flown to Philadelphia, as … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
2 Comments
Voices and Memories and Energy
The last swallow of coffee is cold but, surprisingly, energizing. I look at my cup and wonder how I could have let that little bit of coffee sit, unattended and unswallowed, for so long. Ah, I know. I was writing … Continue reading
Posted in Emotion, Family, Friendship, Health, Poetry, Walking
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Baby Breaks Through
Soft, warm pillows surround me, keeping me safe from something I can’t see. My days have no hours, no mornings, no nights, just comfort and occasional consciousness, dim and dark; so little light. Suddenly, my safety shatters, the silence sacrificed … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Writing
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Let Me Ferment on That for A While
A snack shouldn’t be so damn expensive. But sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and spend, spend, spend. Which is what I did. And this morning, I am happier for it. I could have enjoyed a … Continue reading
Posted in Food
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Hardware
A few weeks ago, I spent three minutes in a hardware store seeking an air-conditioner air filter that was unavailable in nearby grocery stores and big-box hardware stores. I found it, but could not bring myself to simply pay and leave … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
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Cynic
It is easy to wrap oneself in the red and blue ribbons around the neck of the winner. Adorning oneself with gold and silver and bronze pennants proclaims superiority on the scale of human accomplishment. But it’s all a show. It’s a … Continue reading
Posted in Compassion, Emotion, Philosophy
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A Korea of His Own Making
Tuesday morning. Actually, Monday night. That’s when he made the decision to withdraw. He would slip out of his routine quietly, without fanfare. No announcement, no notice; nothing to call attention to his disappearance from the ether, the netherworld of … Continue reading
Self-Congratulation
We recognize it. All of us acknowledge it. We see the disintegration of civility on both sides of the debate and we condemn it, universally. But it’s always the other side that’s most shrill, most virulent, most fanatic. Never our … Continue reading
Posted in Anger, Frustration, Philosophy
1 Comment
Shattered Glass and Fire
I stared at the doorway, wishing for a sound of humanity, if only a feeble voice or a cry or a muffled scream. And there it was. A harsh, rasping noise like the last screams of Satan as his throat turned to shattered glass and … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Writing
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Weight, Weight, Don’t Tell Me
In spite of adhering to Phase I of the South Beach diet, albeit not religiously, my weight loss seems to have slowed to a crawl and, from day-to-day, even to see-saw back and forth. Yesterday, I had lost 11.6 pounds … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Just Thinking
5 Comments
Contrast
Last night’s snow left the ground covered with a heavy dusting, perhaps three-quarters of an inch of white powder. The contrast between the brilliant white snow and the dark browns and greens of the trees and ground and the rocks … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
2 Comments
Imaginary World
I sat with my friend at the kitchen table, sturdy as steel but worn to bare wood from a hundred years of use by families in their own kitchens during wars and recessions, presidential crises and moon landings. I found the … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Writing
2 Comments
759
A couple of days ago, I decided not to publish anything I’d written that morning. Yesterday, was the same. It felt strange not to upload anything to share with the tiny piece of the world that sometimes reads what I write. I felt like … Continue reading
Even a Gift of Bacon Wasn’t Enough
Ernest Hemingway broke into my house on my birthday in October 1960 when I was seven years old. The media reported at the time that he was in hiding with Mary, in New York; clearly he was not. No, he … Continue reading
The Law of Pressure-Pots
A friend uses a different term for the apparatus I call a pressure-cooker. He calls it a pressure-pot. I’ve come to prefer his term, though I can’t seem to get out of the habit of calling the device by the name I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
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Masks and Prisms and Shadows
As I walked out of my study to make another cup of coffee this morning, I was greeted by what I considered a beautiful sight; the sun and shadows and prismatic reflections conspiring to extract even deeper art from the … Continue reading
Posted in Photography
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Ach. Pain.
My visit to the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow ended badly. I don’t know what it was—hoisting a suitcase into the car for the return trip home or reaching across the day-bed to strip the sheets from that odd piece … Continue reading
In Short, Excellent
Last night was excellent! My writing colleagues and I had a nice dinner, as all of our dinners here have been, and then we spent several hours chatting among ourselves and reading our work aloud. An addition at and after dinner … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
1 Comment
Memories of the Road
I guess I’m in the mood for reminiscence. Again this morning, I slipped into an old blog and started reading about some of the road trips my wife and I used to take. One such trip involved a stop in … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
1 Comment
Flowing Through My Veins
Last night, I was unwilling to go to bed at a reasonable hour, so I stayed up and read some of my older blog posts (from a now archived blog), including several posts about language and poetry. It’s interesting to … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Writing
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Thinking It Through
Tonight, several of us gathered at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow read some of our work. Heretofore, I’ve enjoyed reading my poetry and my stories, but last night it felt different; strained and uncomfortable, as if I were reading … Continue reading
Timid Celebrant
If I could raise a toast, I would. I would celebrate a victory of gritty substance over fantasy. I would cheer profundity in a vapid sphere that offers accolades to ephemeral vapor. I would add my voice to a raucous crowd, one of … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
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Hanging at the Hollow
It is unreasonable, of course, that I am staying in a suite at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow designed for writers of culinary materials. Yes, I did choose this suite. And yes, I intended to cook fabulous meals during … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
2 Comments