Category Archives: Commentary

Woodstock History: Poets Duel in the Mud

(This piece first appeared in the Woodstock Times.) Who, besides poets, likes the local poetry scene? Years ago, Mikhail Horowitz warned me, “The smaller the pie, the sharper the knives.” Oh, I’ve gotten compliments, but the slights are what I … Continue reading

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For My Stanford 35th Reunion: a bald eagle and Peter Buffett

(For our upcoming 35th reunion, I’ve contributed a page to our class book. Here’s what I wrote.) Here’s a Stanford moment: I live on the outskirts of Woodstock, New York, near an old reservoir pond that’s like a wildlife refuge … Continue reading

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Praise for The Pocket Perkins

A small book fifty years in the making The Pocket Perkins offers brief writings on Life as a Writer, Walker, Pagan, Poet, Philosopher, Flaneur, Provocateur, Libertarian, and Libertine. As Michael Perkins writes, “To make a perfect sentence is a hard … Continue reading

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My WAMC Rant Against Golf

(WAMC broadcast this piece as a Listener Essay. The poem appears in My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse. WAMC has also broadcast my piece, “What Is It About Zombies?”) No Golf in the Kingdom By Will Nixon The delusion … Continue reading

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Orpheus and Eurydice: The Way to the Underworld, by Janet Hamill

[On Sunday, August 26th, I’ll participate in the “Spoken Aggregate” poetry festival at the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale from 1 to 4 pm. Three of us–Chris Wheeling, Janet Hamill, and myself–will present works inspired by the Underworld. Here, Janet … Continue reading

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Janine Mower Joins Our Final Summer Woodstock History Walk

For our summer finale, Janine Fallon-Mower will join our Pocket Guide to Woodstock Village History Walk this Saturday, August 25th, starting at 10 am at the Golden Notebook, 29 Tinker Street. Our tour will include a visit to Mower’s Flea … Continue reading

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Woodstock Village Walk to Visit the Artists Cemetery

Do you know what they say about the Woodstock Artists Cemetery? People are just dying to get in. Sorry. That’s a graveyard joke I should have outgrown at 17, but obviously haven’t. But did you know that the name came … Continue reading

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Village History Walk to Visit the Dutch Reformed Church

No building dominates the center of Woodstock like the Dutch Reformed Church. The classic white columns and solitary steeple stand like the gateway to the town and its history. Yet how many people have been inside? Not until last winter, … Continue reading

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After the War was Over: Post WW II Woodstock

(This article appeared in the Woodstock Times. Richard Heppner, the Woodstock Town Historian, will join our Pocket Guide to Woodstock Village History Walk at Saturday, August 4th, at 10 am at the Golden Notebook, 29 Tinker Street.) After the War … Continue reading

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Woodstock: The Golden Age Before Tie Die

We think of the Bohemian Twenties and the Rock ‘N’ Roll Sixties as the wildly colorful eras that made Woodstock famous. But Richard Heppner, our town historian, has chosen the late Forties and early Fifties, after World War Two’s Greatest … Continue reading

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