Ink Tea Stone Leaf

A place to get the words out

  • Yoshi Compatibility

    Last week, Ariele and I had a short visit from the woman who is managing our adoption application. The visit itself was not very important, but she mentioned before she left that in the course of completing our home study, her supervisor had expressed concerns about our conure, Yoshi, and the possibility that he might… Continue reading

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  • Poet’s Portfolio #3

    This July, I’m going to write a short poem (or a long one, who knows?) every day. I’ll post them once a week until the month is over. That pretty much explains it, I think. July 11th, 2026 The neighborhood garage saleattracts the bargain bin fiends,the folks who’d gladly pay morethan what their neighbor asks… Continue reading

  • A very small post about books

    I think there might be something a bit wrong with how I queue my books. What I mean is, I think there might be something wrong with having a systematic queue. Give me a moment to explain. At present, there are eleven volumes on my queue shelf. I have determined to read them, in order,… Continue reading

  • Poet’s Portfolio #2

    This July, I’m going to write a short poem (or a long one, who knows?) every day. I’ll post them once a week until the month is over. That pretty much explains it, I think. July 4th, 2026 Charcoal briquettes, eachlaid in the best position,glow in harmony. July 5th, 2026 Winning one in every seven… Continue reading

  • A New Birth of Freedom

    It has been a long while since I gently laid aside my hope that, once certain malignancies growing upon the body politic had expired, the United States would be able to resume its long march toward freedom as if nothing had happened. Too many things have been broken that must be repaired; too many people… Continue reading

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  • Poet’s Portfolio #1

    This July, I’m going to write a short poem (or a long one, who knows?) every day. I’ll post them once a week until the month is over. That pretty much explains it, I think. July 1st, 2026 “Now listen,” said Morris,”you came at me like,’gimme all the money in your wallet,’and listen, all I’m… Continue reading

  • Reckoning with Juvenalia

    While I wait for my editor to send me back some more chapters from my novel to review, my mind has been drifting toward poetry. I’ve posted two new poems here in the last couple of weeks, and I’m preparing for a special month-long poetry feature for July that will help me tone up the… Continue reading

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  • Under the Open Sky

    Observe your breath in the chill of nightand hold the body that keeps you warm—to feel the stars of the northern skyarrest your eyes, to behold their redsand blues, to shiver, is such a lucky thing!With every call of the crickets, music—rivers, ribbits, a rhapsodyof forest played to the fallen treesand dedicated to darkened moon.The… Continue reading

  • A Little Lesson in the Legislative Process

    On certain occasions, the impulse to talk at the world like a social studies teacher becomes overwhelming. Some point of history or civics momentarily becomes interesting to the fraction of people who pay attention to current events, and then somebody has to write a blog post or record a video about the relevant lesson from… Continue reading

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  • Colossus of Roads

    Spanning high above the canyon’schaparral and stones, a dozenlanes afloat on pools of fog—thepurple rises in the easternsky, the orange west is blinding—I the driver chase the evening’slight to seek the summer’s daughterwading in the shallows, waiting,dressed in skin and sun, her shadowstretching tall across the sand—butI the driver, borne aloft bydreaming, borne by pillars… Continue reading