creative nonfiction – Life Along The River

God Is Here

When I last travelled the desert, I passed this one empty house. It was along a flat stretch of highway. A straight away nearly twelve miles long. Springtime was busting out. The desert filling with promise. Green spotted the hills and I could see dots of little yellow flowers. And rain. Rain was loving the…

Fire

The plume rises before us. White and billowy. We watch from across the valley. Then walk back to our camp by the lake. The beautiful alpine lake snug against steep cliffs – where remnants of snow cling to rocks on the far side. It is the place we picked so as to monitor the fire’s…

Apples

I found the bear one fall day as clouds slouched up the valley, pushed by an incoming storm. Crows flapped in the alders and before I could reason the oddness of so many, the dog was off and tearing into whatever was there below the trees. I shouldn’t say I found the bear. I’d already heard rumors…