Forbidden
When the Laws of Man and Nature Collide in the Mountains The year was 1983. July, to be exact, as a young man’s lone figure eased into an overgrown Adirondack trailhead parking lot and turned off his truck’s engine. He did a quick personal pat down; keys, pocket-knife,...
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Irish Autumn
Author’s Note: I drafted this poem many years ago for my wife. My handwritten notes simply bear the date “1990”, so I must have written it shortly after Robin and I married. For reasons unbeknownst to me at this point in life, it sat all these years gathering dust...
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An Adirondack Engagement
Author’s Note: This story appeared in the June 8, 2021, online edition of The Adirondack Almanack. ********** I remember our orientation day visit to Paul Smith’s College with our son RJ as he prepared to enter his freshman year as a Wildlife Sciences major there. It was August...
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A Trail of Broken Hearts
An Adirondack Outlaw Wandering Lost in Love’s Wilderness ********** Author’s Note: This story was featured in the February 13, 2022 online edition of The Adirondack Almanack ********** There’s a mystic trail in these mountains. Myths, tragedies, and harrowing rescue tales surround it. It’s not marked on any map. Oldtimers...
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My Rifle For A Rose
1-22 INF/1st BDE/10th MTN DIV (LI), Ft Drum, N.Y. 1988: Fort Drum was still under construction. The 10th Mountain Division(LI) remained a long way from full strength. My unit, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry, was billeted in old wooden WWII barracks on what would become “Old Post.” Â Â Â Â Â We were...
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The Ice Palace
I penned this piece shortly after Robin & I were married. We lived in an apartment on South Massey Street in Watertown, New York. I was still an Army Captain serving in Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division. We had just weathered our first “Ice Storm.” ***** December in...
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MegDella’s Flock
A tale inspired by “Saranac Shelties” Author’s Note: My mom, Carol Monroe, brought home our first Shetland Sheepdog just after I graduated high school, shortly before I left for Cornell. Her name was “Lady”. She quickly adopted my father & was his faithful companion for the rest of his...
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