Saxon Henry's Blog, page 20

Poetry Out of Context, In Context

by Saxon Henry

I take serious pleasure in reading poets who have a knack for bringing mythology to life in their work. One of the leaders of this adept club in my mind is Louise Glück. I go back to her poetry often, especially The Triumph of Achilles, a book I read for the first time during my only trip to the Pacific Northwest. I was surprised how snippets of her poetry filtered through my mind as I experienced Seattle and the stunning natural settings surrounding the city. The resonance was...

Lifting Off and Floating Above

by Saxon Henry

19. Lifting off from JFK, mudflats veined with rivulets come into view. The strong breezes nettling my skin in town yesterday seem to persist below, drawing Harring-esque squiggles on the water. Off the coast of Long Island, the cold ocean froths over shoals—a barrier island, its expanse little more than a sliver of sand, draws a delicately curving line marking the wide-open water’s end. Suddenly, it’s nothing but sea.

20. I am floating above the Apennine Mountains on the way to...

Miracle on the Hudson: the 5th Anniversary

Couric Interviews Sully [Image, courtesy of KatieCouric.com, copyright Disney-ABC.]

by Saxon Henry

Who wasn’t glued to a television or computer screen, or a mobile device at some point on this day five years ago when Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, III, slid the fuselage of U.S. Airways flight number 1549 into the Hudson River, saving the lives of everyone onboard? Each year I wonder if “Sully” will surface when the Miracle on the Hudson is revisited and journalists hail him as a hero. When Ka...

Miracle on the Hudson Anniversary

Couric Interviews Sully [Image, courtesy of KatieCouric.com, copyright Disney-ABC.]

by Saxon Henry

Who wasn’t glued to a television or computer screen, or a mobile device at some point on this day five years ago when Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, III, slid the fuselage of U.S. Airways flight number 1549 into the Hudson River, saving the lives of everyone onboard? Each year I wonder if “Sully” will surface when the Miracle on the Hudson is revisited and journalists hail him as a hero. When Ka...

A Treacherous World of Continual Dissolving

by Saxon Henry

I toss my L.L. Bean duffle bag into the backend of the car as I prepare to leave Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I fumble for the door handle on the old Ford Bronco in the hazy dark, the sunlight still muted by fog. The engine on the beast of a machine fires without hesitation and I drive away with a queasy gurgle of dread plucking at my esophagus. As I leave the familiar terrain of the resort town, I wonder how it will feel to move amongst people who were mistreated by my church a...

Worshipful Ecstasy and Sorrow

by Saxon Henry

17. The giant trees are blooming, their grounded petals scattered like confetti in the fields. Normally slathered in grassy green, entire sections of the land are caked in resplendent orange as the sun infuses the fallen blossoms with ecstatic color, allowing them to live their last decaying hours so exuberantly. What a paradox of life and death irrevocably intertwined! I think, wishing the bus would slow down as it slashes past them on the thin rib of highway so I can watch the...

Following Petrarchan Paths in Italy

A wheel of aged Parmesan in its namesake city!

by Saxon Henry

Human suffering. Unrequited Love. Not likely the first two descriptions you’d think of when identifying the Italian town lauded for inventing prosciutto and Parmesan cheese, I bet! Though I enjoyed more than my fair share of these gastronomic marvels during a recent trip to Parma, Italy, one of my greatest pleasures was spending three days channeling the despondent state of mind for which Petrarch, one of the town’s most famous forme...

The Many Moods of Light

Improvateur traveled to Maine this past summer, visiting the Pemaquid Lighthouse for the first time; image © Saxon Henry, all rights reserved.

by Saxon Henry

15. Fog-muted morning light reveals I am a jewel ensconced in a pretty case filled with cottony cushioning. I force myself to grow as still as humanly possible, to cease rattling against the sides of my life, the container of it emotionally small enough to keep me safe but too small to allow me to grow. The stillness will not hold…

16. In t...

Where There’s Smoke, There’s a Fabulous Film

by Saxon Henry

The first time I watched the movie Smoke, I couldn’t imagine myself living in a Brooklyn neighborhood surrounded by the world character, Auggie Wren, photographed from the same spot at the same time every morning. Fast-forward 15 years, and here I am! I was recently reminded of the film, written and co-direct by Paul Auster, when I read a review of his new book, Report from the Interior, in The Boston Globe. I’m a long-time fan of the author’s fiction, nonfiction...

Where There Is Smoke…

by Saxon Henry

The first time I watched the movie Smoke, I couldn’t imagine myself living in a Brooklyn neighborhood surrounded by the world character, Auggie Wren, photographed from the same spot at the same time every morning. Fast-forward 15 years, and here I am! I was recently reminded of the film, written and co-direct by Paul Auster, when I read a review of his new book, Report from the Interior, in The Boston Globe. I’m a long-time fan of the author’s fiction, nonfiction...