“Ada had to admit that, at least now and then, just saying what your heart felt, straight and simple and unguarded, could be more useful than four thousand lines of John Keats. She had never been able to do it in her whole life, but she thought she would like to learn how.”—Charles Frazier, […]
All Posts By: Byron McCoy
Short Story
CONVERSATION WITH THE COSMOS
“I finished rereading a book yesterday.” His excitement showed in his shifting in seat, the way he drew nearer to its end, leaning outward and across to her, and in eyes that fell in focus to the table as if the thoughts he wished to share were present, physical entities to be seen and […]
Quick Thought
LETTER TO A FRIEND
I returned to “Life is a Miracle” today, Berry’s explanation of art and how it is not valuable in what it might be reduced and explained to be, but for how it exists and what it tells by the form in which it appears, the story told, the perception shared; how art and science […]
Journal Pages / Short Story
THE HERON
“Ada wondered that herons could tolerate each other close enough to breed. She had seen a scant number in her life, and those so lonesome as to make the heart sting on their behalf. Everywhere they were seemed far from home.”—Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain He read the quote aloud, and when he finished, […]
Journal Pages / Short Story
RIVER VIEW
“The creek’s turnings marked how all that moves must shape itself to the maze of actual landscape, no matter what its preference might be.”—Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain It was a place where he went to think, where the river spread and shallowed on red sand stones of an ancient sea then fell in […]
Journal Pages
FROM THE WOODS
“He wrote in the fall, and his words fell to page like leaves in winds of wondering. He wrote in hues of golden hopes, scarlet sorrows, and a life of shades between. When the rains of winter came, the shades between were the first to fade, become broken down and made no more; and […]
Journal Pages / Short Story
AUTUMN DIFFERENCE
“…Autumn was different. It was the season she remembered, when life of the past shone in different ways, in colors hidden by the green of summers lived, illuminating the richness and a difference always present beneath the summer colors viewed. You didn’t see it in the summer, but it shone when the green gave […]