PAUL CHRISTENSEN

Everyone around here is sluggish. The young woman who checks my purchases off the conveyor belt dabs her eyes and stifles a yawn. She...

I'm getting in the car and cranking the motor. It's always suspenseful whether the engine will turn over and purr or produce some anemic...

It's summer and the gods are playing tug of war with the wind and the sun. Some days are dead-weighted with humid air that clings to our...

The Dog Days came early. Usually, August is the boiling month under the star Sirius, a ferocious mascot of hellfire and incineration. But...

The hills have turned so green it almost seems the world could melt into an emerald blaze, a conflagration of jewels and diamond-crusted...

The day is as gray as raw silk, and hangs from the sky as if someone were in a hurry to get the curtains hung. The absence of any shadows...

Rainy and cold today. About forty degrees, with the gutters mumbling as rain lands against the roof and shatters. The flowers are...

There's a willow tree rooted in moist ground just above a little pond. Its fronds hang down stippled with buds, like the elaborate...

I have a modest stash of red wine in the house, and a canister full of my favorite pipe tobacco, Peterson's "Night Cap," a pungent...

I looked out my window after brushing my teeth this morning and saw a tree blazing with white blossoms! It was startling, like a gulp of...