patrickjegan

March 19, 2024

Anemonia Keeps Me Awake

Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out. ~~Richter [The Berlew Family Reunion. Orange, PA. September 6, 1926. Photo: Egan Family Archives.] I don’t think it rained that day. There are no clouds in the sky. I should know. I’ve crawled inside this photo more than once over the years. One…

February 27, 2024

Gallery 636

[The Woman. Photo is mine.] We sometimes encounter people, even strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight. Somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken. ~~Fyodor Dostoyevsky I’d seen the El Greco, the Tiepolo and the Manet. But, what I really needed was a bench, so hard to find sometimes…

February 16, 2024

The Last Quarter Moon Gives A Pale Wintry Light/Late Night Thoughts Following Spinal Surgery

{Author’s Note: This blog post contains a photograph of an x-ray of my lower back taken six days after my spinal fusion. If the image of hardware screwing together two of my vertebra is irksome to you, my gentle readers, then feel free to search for another fine read. I have 645 in the bank.…

January 26, 2024

The Gravity of Manhattan: Three Worlds

[Upper East Side Buildings. Photo is mine.] Do you know what the sounds of this city are? Screams. All those buildings are gray with sadness. ~~ Soji Shimada As I walked down the street from Broadway, I paused to listen… When I secured a teaching position in New York City in the very early 1990s,…

January 1, 2024

Better Late Than Never: A Fairy Tale of New York

Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. ~~Edward Bulwer Lytton I love music. The older I get, the more varied my tastes have become. Spotify is my second home. But, I have a problem. Many times I have forged new trails in the snowy slopes of the Juneau…

December 17, 2023

The Persistence of Memory: Chris, Bill and High Adventures

Where’s my high quality mug? ~~ Bill Zeller On a very chilly afternoon in early December, Mariam and I stood in the doorway of a friend’s house in Dunbarton, NH. The warmth of his hand infused me and the gleam in his eyes inspired me. We went in, met his wife, Anne and Pepper, their…

December 8, 2023

Dark Night/Dark Happenings

[A British tabloid. Photo: Google Search] I can’t Imagine… ~~ Patrick Egan It was 1980. I was teaching Oceanography and Earth Science at the Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. Monday, Dec. 8, was a normal day of classes. Late that afternoon, Parent/Teacher Conferences were scheduled. I was a new faculty member and somehow I scored…

December 1, 2023

Twelve Days With A Sad Little Tree

Ho ho the mistletoe Is hung where you can see Somebody waits for you Kiss her once for me… ~~Burl Ives (Lyrics by Johnny Marks) [The sad tree. Photo is mine.] Once upon a time, I was sitting in a small inexpensive apartment in a city quite far from where I’m writing this, and I…

November 23, 2023

The Land of the Lost

Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare? Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there? Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again? Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight? ~~Elvis [Source: Google Search] Thanksgiving Day, 2023. New York City. I volunteer to deliver meals to home-bound…

November 15, 2023

Another Day Another Something To Upset Me

[Sometimes I wish this was my life. Quiet, serene, contemplative and domestic. Myself, Mariam and, of course, Lassie. But, I’m not in this photo. It’s not 1949. It’s 2023. Source: Google Search.] Late morning on this day. It’s November 14 and I had just left my surgeon’s office. He saw my foot, two and a…