Books
Walking Woodstock
Journeys into the Wild Heart of America’s Most Famous Small Town
by Michael Perkins
and Will Nixon
Illustrated by Carol Zaloom #1 Paperback Bestseller of 2009, Golden Notebook, Woodstock, NY
The Pocket Guide to Woodstock
An Insiders' Guide with Suggested Hikes, a Walking Tour of the Historic Village, Maps, Photographs, and the Best Tips for a Memorable Visit
by Michael Perkins
and Will Nixon
Illustrated by Carol Zaloom #1 Paperback Bestseller of 2012, Golden Notebook, Woodstock, NYBooks
Books
Poetry
Poetry
Poetry
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Quotes
“Are you familiar with the writing of Woodstock poet Will Nixon? If not, you should be because of his funny, wistful, poignant poems.”
-- Catskill Mountain Region Guide“The Hudson Valley has produced some of the great peregrinations of our time, most notably by John Burroughs, an inveterate walker. Add Michael Perkins and Will Nixon to the list—these are charming essays, some of them with a bit more bite than you'd guess.”
-- Bill McKibben
Monthly Archives: February 2012
The Philosophy of Walking, by John Cowper Powys
(Have you heard of John Cowper Powys? Neither had I, until Michael Perkins treated me to A Philosophy of Solitude published by Powys in 1933. It scintillates with arguments against group thinking. Here’s a passage about walking, sex, and the … Continue reading
“Walking” By Edward Abbey
(From The Journey Home.) Whenever possible I avoid the practice myself. If God had meant us to walk, he would have kept us down on all fours, with well-padded paws. He would have constructed our planet on the model of … Continue reading
Abraham Lincoln as the Catskill Eagle
“Embedded in the narrative of Moby-Dick is a metaphysical blueprint of the United States. Melville fills the book with telling similes and metaphors that allow a story set almost entirely at sea to evoke the look and feel of America … Continue reading
Two fun poems from “Liberty’s Vigil, The Occupy Anthology”
Two poems that I especially enjoyed in Liberty’s Vigil, The Occupy Anthology use form to generate great wit out of the tired language of slogans. A Villanelle for Hard Times The unending crisis—begun by the cronies of Shrub. While many … Continue reading
Herman Melville & Hart Crane
Nathaniel Philbrick has written a marvelous book, Why Read Moby-Dick? Let me quote: “Moby-Dick is a novel, but it is also a book of poetry. The beauty of Melville’s sentences is such that it sometimes takes me five minutes or … Continue reading
The Beacon Mountain Poem
Long before I grew enamored with Beacon as NoBro (North Brooklyn) with its gentrifying main street of art galleries and funky coffee houses clustered in restored brick buildings at both ends, I encountered it as a prison town. (“Be-A-Con,” a … Continue reading
My Elegy for Mauro Parisi
(Late in 2004 I returned from a long stay in the Adirondacks to learn that Mauro Parisi had taken his life. I hadn’t known him well, but what I had known hadn’t prepared me for this news. In this elegy … Continue reading
Samuel Claiborne Recalls Mauro Parisi
Robert Milby’s poem, “The Hudson River in Winter,” brought back memories of Mauro Parisi, who took his life in 2004 by jumping off a bridge. Here are two elegies by Samuel Claiborne. Mauro You were the one I first noticed … Continue reading
“The Hudson River in Winter” by Robert Milby
Morning Hudson River has ice on its face; Ice on its skin in late January. Ghosts fly low to kiss ice bouquets in its powerful arms, jeweled cloak; Hair rivulets and tribulations of Winter blue. I shout crow poetry from … Continue reading
Why You Should Stand on a Mountain, from Joseph Wood Krutch
(By chance, the cover of my edition of Joseph Wood Krutch’s The Desert Year, first published in 1952, has a beautiful photograph of orange poppies flowering far into the distance below the towering pinnacles of Mount Ajo in southern Arizona. … Continue reading →