In October 2015, while living and teaching abroad in Siberia, I had an extraordinary dream. I was attending Mass in a large hall with both Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers. During the Mass, I was talking to the Orthodox about the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, when suddenly I realized that while talking I had missed … Read more
Two weeks ago today, I arrived in the USA after a year and a half in Novosibirsk, Russia. While it was a relief to arrive after such a long trip (a 4-hour flight to Moscow, followed by a layover and a 9-hour flight to New York), I carried a sadness I didn’t know what to do … Read more
I once read that if you want to be a writer, you must take an ax to the rest of your life. Writing, like other arts, demands time. You need time to create. Time to ruminate. Time to rethink and revise. You even need time to share and promote your work. Then, when you start to build … Read more
Just to warn you, this one’s a little intense. Perhaps you won’t be surprised, as the next theme on the list is WAR … Not the lightest subject. I could have changed the sense of “war” to something less literal, sure — but then again, I couldn’t. It felt like a cop-out. And then, of course, … Read more
Confession time: I’ve been hoarding this one. Long ago I promised to share my 100 Themes poems on this blog, even if they seemed publishable elsewhere. Since then, I’ve held a few back for personal reasons, when it seemed prudent to limit the audience. Other times — like now — I’ve held back because it seemed a … Read more