midnight mesa

OR When the Ground and the Sky Trade Secrets

The highest mountains
are no closer than the deepest valleys
to the sky.

— Wislawa Szymborska

The song “midnight mesa” came into this world in one of our get-togethers. We all had a few days in between obligations and found ourselves at Eli’s. We’d plunk around with ideas and coffee during the day, then go driving and walking around the desert at night, musing about constellations and Native American spirits.

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southern hercules: the legend of big henry shoaf


Let us tell you about a man—no, a mountain. A tall stretch of shadow cast across the red clay. A  laugh that echoed through the tall, tall pines. Stories carried by creeks and rivers that never stopped flowing. 

Big Henry Shoaf, they called him. A man as big as the stories told about him. A heart as wide as the Yadkin, a laugh that could shake the rafters, and a legend that only grew taller with time.

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