PowellsBooks.Blog

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Michael Toms for the iconic New Dimensions radio show. Toms, often called the Socrates of Radio, showed up for the interview with a legal pad that was completely filled with tiny handwritten notes and queries about my book Crow Planet. He knew the contents of the book better than I did and, like the real Socrates, drew thoughts from my mind and heart that I didn't even know were there. When I learned of his death early this year, I recalled our post-interview walk in his garden, Michael leaning heavily on a walking stick. He and his wife, Justine, had loaded my arms with gifts: copies of all the books they'd both written, topped with a bright green bumper sticker printed with the words: Celebrate Fiercely. The studio, which occupied the bottom floor of Michael and Justine's home, was perched on an arid Northern California hillside. I remember looking at the sticker, breathing in the pungent fragrance of white sage, and lifting my face to that deserty sun, so different from the moist-clouded sun ...

I didn't know how to break it to my neighbor Jane, so I decided to just pick up the phone and say it straight. Thank god I got the answering machine, as this is not the sort of thing anyone wants to hear before coffee. "Honey, there's a dead bird on your roof." The bird was lying there just beneath the peak, in crumpled disarray....