Feeding seagulls and feasting our eyes on pastel sunsets in late December light is soul-nourishing.

A simple poem in a Chaucerian structure that conveys the simple innocence of a childhood along the Texas Gulf Coast.

A deeply personal tribute to my childhood friend Tracy on what would have been his 62nd birthday, reflecting on our shared roots in Gilchrist, Texas—a town erased by Hurricane Ike—and the indelible imprints left on our hearts by those we love. This remembrance honors friendship, loss, and the echoes of childhood that never fade.

A quadrille poem for the dVerse prompt dives into the tales that shaped me—Puff’s fading magic, Gulliver’s sharp satire, Jonah’s stubborn faith—and the beachy wonder where I first heard them. Fish, wish, and childhood spells: stories that still shimmer like sunlight on the water.

Seagulls’ simplicity and single-mindedness lays bare the basic necessities of their lives, their groundhog day existence: eat, mingle, survive, forage, fly together, chase shrimp boats, sleep, make raucous noises—and repeat.

My childhood at the beach is a constant muse for poetry and a guide for how to live, an everlasting gift from my parents, who chose to leave suburbia for a life on the coast that would their children to be children and their lives to authentic and grounded in nature.

Wishing you all more whimsy than ‘grimsy’ during this crazy winter of pandemic…. stay safe, everyone, and enjoy those small moments.

Still Life: Seashells with Shellac on a Paper Bag.

Sunny good times of the past get us through dreary Januaries of the present. Today, the focus is on Stonehaven Harbor on the Scottish coast.

Family-memory stories gain a patina with age and become the stuff of legend. The Story of Chicken is one of those stories.

This dogged little doggie on the beach in Aberdeen made me smile.