Gin & Tonic

GIN & TONIC   The holy man is an equation: reverence plus self-control equals what? purity? heaven? It equals something, surely.   As he sits on the barstool to my right, I happen to be on an inhalation – His robe smells like celery. And a bit like my...
A Journey of No Distance

A Journey of No Distance

A JOURNEY OF NO DISTANCE   A vacuum of chatter A detachment of friends A tavern of echoes A grocery store of disappointment   A temperature of fate A fever of connection Streets of abandon A round globe of loneliness   A pneumonia of worry A panic of...
Dawn Chorus

Dawn Chorus

Dawn Chorus I was surprised to hear them: birds.  It was February still. Late February. But in the darkness before sunrise, birds sang me awake. How could I have forgotten about morning birds?   After a long winter with maybe a dozen smallish winter storms, and months...
Author Michael Graves

Author Michael Graves

Michael D. Graves has written three books, all published by Meadowlark Books of Emporia, Kansas: Green Bike (with co-authors Kevin Rabas and Tracy Million Simmons) was published in 2014, To Leave a Shadow in 2015 (a 2016 Kansas Notable Book), and Shadow of Death in...
Author Roy Beckemeyer

Author Roy Beckemeyer

Roy Beckemeyer is one of those people who makes you feel comfortable in his presence. He’s a poet, a retired aerospace engineer, a man who loves the arts. He wields an incredible vocabulary. He’s a kind human being, a gentleman. He’s been Poet of the...