In the Presence of a Great Gray Owl

I just sent email to children I met in North Carolina last week.  They live in an enormous old house right in the middle of the Smoky Mountains.  They run around the house, its sprawling porches and every inch of the generous land that surrounds it.  They are learning with every step.  They’re kids.  Learning and running around is, most naturally, what kids do. These children have parents who are committed to… Read More

Stories and Specialty

I just spent four days in the company of poets and writers.  Well-published storytellers like Naomi Shihab Nye, Luis Urrea, Kim Stafford, Teresa Jordan, Gary Ferguson — and hundreds more, published and not.  No matter the notoriety, each one wove images into stories — tales to entertain, to instruct, to push beyond whatever bounds any of us imagines. All week these stories echoed across the wide meadow in the northeastern corner of Oregon… Read More