A poem — I saw just now again the garden at dusk, beyond the open glass doors. I saw the white narcissus and star lilies in the moonlight, luminous and perfect. I was supposed to be somewhere else, but I stayed, remembering. For I had been here before and forgotten how everything mattered. How the radiance…

This is a hard one. But Eleanor Roosevelt knew what she was talking about. The former First Lady ranked in the top nine most widely admired people of the twentieth century. Her legacy, one among many, was to tell us “The choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” Yet…

You take the risk of falling through — I watched her walk through the snow under fading winter light. Beyond the small parking lot a grove of fir trees bent in the wind. At the entrance she stopped, gazing a long time at the directory on the wall outside. Finally she pulled open the door and came inside. …

An early Halloween story — The ruins showed under moonlight, all shadows and corners, the broken windows leaving jagged holes. In the chill of the October night it was a place of desolation, pecked at by time and weather. Guests, as they had been called, never came. Not anymore. The asylum had held its emptiness…

A short story of Holmesian adventure My father’s name is John H. Watson, M.D. and my mother’s was Anna, neé Greene. As their youngest child and only daughter, I was rather left to my own devices. It is not that they were indifferent to me. On the contrary, no child…

After moving 21 times, I have discovered what letting go of “things” means… — Each of us desires these three things in choosing our home — we seek comfort, a place to put objects we value, and some level of aesthetic beauty. But do we need a lot of space to create this? I now live in a 1,500-square-foot apartment, the first floor of…

A locked room mystery The warden walked down the long corridor with his first-line supervisor. The harsh fluorescent lights above them were covered with steel beams and mesh. “Nothing unusual about the cell,” Owens was saying, his voice holding a combination of nervousness and defensiveness as he looked up at…

When an Arthurian tale comes to life in a modern city Legend claims King Arthur himself helped the hero Culhwch meet the demands of the giant Ysbadadden so as to win the hand of his beloved Olwen. Cully Logan knows the old story all too well, burdened as he is…

Even though you think otherwise? —