“EKG done, the triage nurse takes over, checks your blood pressure (high), your oxygen intake (decent, but lower than usual), temperature (normal). She looks more closely at the computer, then at you, ‘Wow.…

“John’s Daddy was a firm believer in the afterlife. It was all that kept him going. There had to be some reason, some make-up for all of the bullshit that life threw at…

“I have asked, I have begged, all of you to read Elizabeth Kolbert’s book so that at least we will be on the same page. We are on the same planet and if…

“Someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to make Iraklia walker-friendly. I set off to climb the island’s peak, Mount Papas (420 meters, or 1386 feet). If that doesn’t sound high,…

“I used to sit on the porch steps, usually with a stick in my hand, digging at the dirt by the brick-lined walk. My parents and aunts and uncles sat on benches or…

  “So they all went to get their digging spoons, and set to work, the eldest with his sterling silver baby spoon from very long ago; the middle child with her sea-shell-shaped sugar…

“Turning his sparkling Corfiot eyes my way, he said, ‘Alekaki, row me to the shore,’ grinning as he stripped down to his Fruit-of-the-Loom tank top and same-brand tighty-whities: ‘We’re off to steal figs!’”—Alexander…

“Speaking as a poet, I have come to recognize that raw emotions are like rare natural resources: they must be actively mined through some extraction process with tools. They do not obey ordinary…

  “Summer’s heat brings changes. The exuberant flush of wild growth and mad flowering, the unstoppable compulsion to reproduce that defines callow springtime, gives way to a slower-paced savoring of the gifts of…

“Clark Gable is remembered as a thrice-divorced and five-time married screen actor, but he understood what ‘home’ meant: a place you approach knowing someone inside is listening for your footsteps. Whether it’s an…