“With so much turmoil in our world, I was at a loss as to what I would write this month, but then I heard a children’s choir sing Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Ceremony of Carols,’ and…

“Thirteen years ago this week, the day before Thanksgiving, on a whim, I drove from West Virginia to rural Kingston, Georgia to a no-kill dog rescue. As I pulled up to the gate holding…

“In the spring of 2003, The Royal Shakespeare Company helped to bring a theatrical production of Rushdie’s allegorical novel Midnight’s Children to the stage of the Apollo Theater. At the time, and still…

“I am a merry-go-round mannikin yanked by the pole at the top of my head and tossed off the wheel. My pole goes into the soft ground. I see the whirling stars beneath…

“I saw stretching out before me endless days of dealing with those demands, of setting aside my life for a person who terrorized me as a child. Something within me demanded that I…

“I’ve never considered myself the equal of George du Maurier’s Svengali, able instantly to capture the heart and soul of any woman, nor are my good looks on the same terrace as Cary…

“Inconveniently, Earth is headed for a dead ocean. As founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Paul Watson has repeatedly said, “if the oceans die, we die.” After all, life on Earth originated in the ocean.…

“‘All aboard,’ cried the conductor as the steam whistle underscored his cry. ‘Oh, dear, the train’s leaving,’ said a traveler at the lunch counter, ‘and my coffee’s too hot to drink.’ ‘Drink mine,…

“When fog hangs this thick there is the pinkest/odor of trouble     One chair at the table’s made/of painted wood and sits empty     Before we settled/this country     before…

“I’ve been thinking of my father lately; one night, I was remembering how he used to meet me on the corner when I walked home from my best friend’s house after dark. If…