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True Touch

In the Zen tradition, a line of succession of Zen Masters is supposed to be linked together by transmission of mind — pure thought transferred from mind to mind with no words. I think that with midwives there is a similar kind of transmission of touch.

Animals

Blaze’s five-gaited walk, Spot’s violent death, Tiger’s Mississippi River adventure

The Horseman Of Marrakech

I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision. I looked closely once again to make sure. I could barely see the tall shape prancing in and out of the traffic. I squinted through the haze and then knew I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. “Yes,” I said to myself, “he thinks he’s a horse.”

Memoirs Of A Professional Killer

Some Sea Stories From The Big Deuce

Once they gave a war, and everybody came. They called it World War II, and the entire basis of this essay is that one man’s recollections of it — necessarily different from every other man’s — are worth preserving.

Byron And The Owl

Byron was born and raised in the City, but he was very unhappy there. He went to work every day in an office with bright lights and soft furniture, and though the people he worked with always seemed to have fun, he was usually unhappy. “I feel out of place,” he’d say, and he’d dream of the forests, rivers, and skies he had seen on camping trips to the mountains.

A Romance

Cartoon By James Thornton

With regards to changing the title from “That Very Special Romance” to “A Romance” I must raise the following objections and make the following suggestions. 1. My title has a certain acerbic irony not present in the truncated (emasculated?) form. The fact is there was nothing particularly romantic about my relationship with the little trollop.

Photographs By Priscilla Rich Safransky

The photographs in this selection are available as a PDF only. Click here to download.

Selected Poems

[It is raining in the desert,]

Another Appetite

Except for a few independent strands, her soft white hair is pulled back from one of the gentlest faces ever to smile through a window. Her dress is plain, as comfortable as her worn blue tennis shoes, yet feminine.