Poem: New Year (Rosh Hashanah)
Rosh Hashanah - Sept 15-17, 2023 new year. Ned Hayes Rosh Hashanah comes this year on a day of cool wind, a breathtaking portent of winter taking the world, rude lover tossing the sheets away. in autumn the sadness of all things is greatest for now the world...
AI – Thoughts and Speculations regarding Books & Copyright (by Adam Neville)
A new post by writer Adam LG Nevill is on point regarding the potential effects of Artificial Intelligence tools on creative writing and writers in general. (Here's a short excerpt posted with the permission of Nevill, with more behind the fold) I'm finding that few...
In Memoriam: Cormac McCarthy
On June 13, at the age of 89, Cormac McCarthy passed away at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was profoundly unsettled and provoked by McCarthy's work, and I found his work to be powerful and insightful. His writing always delved into the darker aspects of human...
Poem: May, by Mary Oliver
May May, and among the miles of leafing, blossoms storm out of the darkness— windflowers and moccasin flowers. The bees dive into them and I too, to gather their spiritual honey. Mute and meek, yet theirs is the deepest certainty that this existence too— this sense of...
Poem: Spring, by Mary Oliver
A poem by Mary Oliver Spring And here is the serpent again, dragging himself out from his nest of darkness, his cave under the dark rocks, his winter-death. He slides over the pine needles. He loops around the branches of rising grass, looking for the sun. Well who...
On Romance
Romance gets criticized for being repetitive - as if repetition is not the way we nourish our bodies and souls. Meals are repetitive: You have to keep making them and eating them and then making and eating them again. Song lyrics repeat every time a chorus comes back...
Poem & Eulogy: Charles Simic
Today, Charles Simic's death was announced. Here's a wonderful memory of Simic by an old friend, Damon Krukowski. I share this with you now as a eulogy for a poet I admired and enjoyed deeply. Rest in peace, and poetry, Charles. Charon's Cosmology With only his...
Hamlet as a Christmas Play
Turns out, that Shakespeare may have taken Advent Season into account when deciding not only where his play would be set, but precisely when. Scholar Steve Roth has written a paper outlining the astronomical history of November 1601, and the holiday season for...
Poem: Good Bones by Maggie Smith
A poem for this moment in our lives... (October 28, 2022) BY MAGGIE SMITH Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my...
Supporting Clarion West with a Book Edit
I'm overjoyed to support Clarion West's annual fundraising gala by gifting the organization a complete novel edit for an aspiring (or published) writer. Clarion West is a fantastic organization for writers who work primarily in the SFF domain. Here are all the...
Art: Local Artists inspired by The Eagle Tree in White Salmon
The Eagle Tree by Ned Hayes is visiting the White Salmon Valley Community Library in October 2022. The award-winning novel The Eagle Tree will be featured in the “Everybody Reads” book program created by the local library system program. One of the centerpieces of the...
Poem: New Year (Rosh Hashanah)
Rosh Hashanah -- September 25-27, 2022 new year. Ned Hayes Rosh Hashanah comes this year on a day of cool wind, a breathtaking portent of winter taking the world, rude lover tossing the sheets away. in autumn the sadness of all things is greatest for now the...
