It’s still dark outside, but the older cat yowls in the darkness, expressing some real or imaginary complaint. The dog stirs and “boops” me under the side of the covers to see if it’s time to get up. I rub her nose and eyes then “scritch” her back to see if she’ll settle back down. […]
Category Archives: darkness

“When we sow a seed, we plant a narrative of future possibility,” ~ Sue Stuart-Smith Yes, things are kind of crappy right now. We’ve got this incredibly bad pandemic keeping us mostly housebound for the last year and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide. We’ve had four years of white supremacy, […]
Is It Safe?” ~ Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man It was a terrifying scene that haunts to this day anyone who saw the film. Thomas Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is strapped into a chair by the evil dentist Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) who hovers menacingly with his dental tools. “Is it safe?” Szell asks. The […]
“Science fiction’s appeal lies in combination of the rational, the believable, with the miraculous. It is an appeal to the sense of wonder.” – David Hartwell per Wikipedia I’m a sci-fi fan and have been aware that there are two types of sci-fi: hard science fiction and speculative fiction. According to Wikipedia, it seems that […]
I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me. I talk to the stars, but they never hear me. The breeze hasn’t time to stop and hear what I say I talk to them all in vain. ~ Pardner (Clint Eastwood) in Paint Your Wagon She was crooning to her Wandering Jew, […]
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer Lead us lest too far we wander Love’s sweet voice is callin’ yonder Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer Hey, there don’t get dimmer, dimmer Light the path below, above And lead us on to love* The fireflies blinked as we slid silently through the close, […]
“Ah yes, I remember it well. It was on a night not unlike tonight …” The tip of his cigarette glowed in the darkness, briefly revealing his features when he took a puff. Mostly he moved back and forth across the small outdoor stage spinning his yarns in the night to the expectant kids and […]

As instructed, I lay on my back and wiggled into the narrow opening. It was tight, and my headlamp did little to light up the darkness beyond the gap. Scraping through, I took a deep breath, and my chest pressed against the massive rock above me. Stuck! Fighting panic, I breathed out and wriggled the […]