Exchange

A place that knew your hand on the handrail of the stairs, and your face in its mirrors, can easily lose you. On the nights of openings, I used to sneak up to use the bathroom. The mongrel hordes through the gallery, I could pee upstairs in peace. No one lives there anymore who would know, […]

Crumbs

Early this morning I saw this bit about Maruice Sendak’s illustrations of Pierre by Herman Melville. The book is out of print. I have the feeling I need a heavy book, both in weight and emotion, to pin me down by all corners. I thought I meant a book by a Russian. You have no […]

Soap And Stones

As I was driving to noon mass for the feast of St. John (in the beginning was the word, a phrase for which I took two years of ancient Greek to read), I realized there wouldn’t be any, because it was Saturday. This is a special day for writers, well, for me, I don’t know […]

Necessity

When you sit next to a kid who tells you he wants to drop out of school, you worry a little about what to say, this is what makes some people praying people. “I know you can make money doing things that are illegal, but doesn’t pretty much everyone who’s doing that stuff eventually go […]