Traipse

To walk or tramp about; to gad, wander. < Old French - trapasser (to trespass).

USA

Monuments to Love: the ‘Taj’

Aug 17, 2023
Romantic love announces itself, whispers itself, in a profusion of forms: by poetry, token gift or ballad, by photographs, paisley tales, portraiture, beguiling sculpture, weavings, sometimes by regretted tattoos, or clutch of flowers, by initials notched in a handy tree or desktop, by an altogether extravagant meal.  All are deeply invested signs that cannot fail […]

Monuments to Love: the ‘Taj’

2 Comments

Romantic love announces itself, whispers itself, in a profusion of forms: by poetry, token gift or ballad, by photographs, paisley tales, portraiture, beguiling sculpture, weavings, sometimes by regretted tattoos, or clutch of flowers, by initials notched in a handy tree or desktop, by an altogether extravagant meal.  All are deeply invested signs that cannot fail […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Straits of Mackinac: The Wonder – and Fear – of Bridges

Jun 23, 2023
I have stood helpless, as have many others, beside wild, swollen rivers gesturing madly to figures on a far bank, voice all but drowned by thrashing water and distance.  It is a primal scene as old as humankind, one that we have for millennia fought to remedy with rafts, dugout canoes, ferries but most emphatically […]

Straits of Mackinac: The Wonder – and Fear – of Bridges

8 Comments

I have stood helpless, as have many others, beside wild, swollen rivers gesturing madly to figures on a far bank, voice all but drowned by thrashing water and distance.  It is a primal scene as old as humankind, one that we have for millennia fought to remedy with rafts, dugout canoes, ferries but most emphatically […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Upper Peninsula: Sisu, Superior and the Spaceport

Jun 1, 2023
You could do worse than to tiptoe into Michigan by the back door of the Upper Penninsula (UP), afloat as it is in a lake-world gift of ancient glaciers.  So near is the time of the Ojibwa and Menominee that the call of a wild north – the loons, the deer and rush of streams […]

The Upper Peninsula: Sisu, Superior and the Spaceport

5 Comments

You could do worse than to tiptoe into Michigan by the back door of the Upper Penninsula (UP), afloat as it is in a lake-world gift of ancient glaciers.  So near is the time of the Ojibwa and Menominee that the call of a wild north – the loons, the deer and rush of streams […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The CIS Waiting Room: Where a Light Shines

May 8, 2023
Some time ago, my friendship with a lovely Vietnamese family brought me to the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) offices in Atlanta.  They came hoping that an interview would finally clinch their status as citizens after a harrowing story that involved war, flight in a flimsy boat, camp life in a detention facility in Hong […]

The CIS Waiting Room: Where a Light Shines

2 Comments

Some time ago, my friendship with a lovely Vietnamese family brought me to the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) offices in Atlanta.  They came hoping that an interview would finally clinch their status as citizens after a harrowing story that involved war, flight in a flimsy boat, camp life in a detention facility in Hong […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Quiet Pride: Power of a Cherokee Medicine Pouch

Mar 11, 2023
She calls herself Trish, though, on reflection, that may well have been a gesture toward drowsy travelers in the Florida motel where she tidies up the breakfast counter and replenishes coffee urns.  She moves among the tables deftly clearing away clutter and resetting furniture.  As the room falls silent, she asks us, the last of […]

Quiet Pride: Power of a Cherokee Medicine Pouch

2 Comments

She calls herself Trish, though, on reflection, that may well have been a gesture toward drowsy travelers in the Florida motel where she tidies up the breakfast counter and replenishes coffee urns.  She moves among the tables deftly clearing away clutter and resetting furniture.  As the room falls silent, she asks us, the last of […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Highway of Storms: Soul of the Smallest Church

Feb 20, 2023
Along the eastern seaboard of America winds a highway renowned for tumult.  Called the Coastal Highway, US #17 tiptoes north from west central Florida to Virginia, following the track of some of the worst hurricanes ever to rake these parts.  On its way, it ranges past the barrier islands of the Georgia coast, setting of […]

Highway of Storms: Soul of the Smallest Church

6 Comments

Along the eastern seaboard of America winds a highway renowned for tumult.  Called the Coastal Highway, US #17 tiptoes north from west central Florida to Virginia, following the track of some of the worst hurricanes ever to rake these parts.  On its way, it ranges past the barrier islands of the Georgia coast, setting of […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Night Manager: Burger Joint at the Corner of Club and Guess

Jan 11, 2023
A brake job you can no longer ignore might well take you to a part of town that is otherwise drive-through country.  Just so, the New Year has led me at the crack of dawn to a garage beside a once trendy mall, now wintered by the caprice of fashion and market.  I dropped off […]

Night Manager: Burger Joint at the Corner of Club and Guess

4 Comments

A brake job you can no longer ignore might well take you to a part of town that is otherwise drive-through country.  Just so, the New Year has led me at the crack of dawn to a garage beside a once trendy mall, now wintered by the caprice of fashion and market.  I dropped off […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Yuletide Story: Soup Ladle as Weapon

Dec 20, 2022
Among the Iroquois tribes of eastern North America a story is told about a time of internal enmity – and of stumbling into peace through the innocence of a little child.  During this outbreak of bloodshed, one of the tribes laid plans to wreak vengeance on their rivals.  To that end they sent out spies […]

Yuletide Story: Soup Ladle as Weapon

6 Comments

Among the Iroquois tribes of eastern North America a story is told about a time of internal enmity – and of stumbling into peace through the innocence of a little child.  During this outbreak of bloodshed, one of the tribes laid plans to wreak vengeance on their rivals.  To that end they sent out spies […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Cemetery Poetry 4 – Flaming Maples in an Ozark Mountain Town

Nov 1, 2022
Few rambles can rival for fall splendor the hills and deep valleys of the Ozark mountains that impose a breathless silence as the roads wind through one scene of hardwood glory after another.  Humble villages and towns care little for the renown and bustle of distant cities as they bask in a spectacle that lays […]

Cemetery Poetry 4 – Flaming Maples in an Ozark Mountain Town

6 Comments

Few rambles can rival for fall splendor the hills and deep valleys of the Ozark mountains that impose a breathless silence as the roads wind through one scene of hardwood glory after another.  Humble villages and towns care little for the renown and bustle of distant cities as they bask in a spectacle that lays […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

That Other Dream: The Power of An Infant in Arms

Jun 24, 2022
A well-known healer in West Africa was visited one day by a tortured soul haunted by a dream of turmoil in the spirit world.  Having heard a full account of these experiences, the healer responded: This is the wrong dream.  Now you must return home and dream a dream of goodness and harmony.  Happily, this […]

That Other Dream: The Power of An Infant in Arms

6 Comments

A well-known healer in West Africa was visited one day by a tortured soul haunted by a dream of turmoil in the spirit world.  Having heard a full account of these experiences, the healer responded: This is the wrong dream.  Now you must return home and dream a dream of goodness and harmony.  Happily, this […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

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