This blog needs some poetry, which I am not competent to provide. Happily my brother is a fine poet, and has agreed to let me post his new series. Here is the first. "Everything I Need Is East of Here"

By Christopher Raley

The west is rich with golden dreams shining in our eyes,

and owners of our sight hang their houses out on cliffs

while waves continually blow and breathe

to crumble sand-stone and mix it red in rip tides.

I don’t need a house in a setting world or a screen,

flat essence, strong skin or frail bone.

I know a land where thunderheads stack into the blue

and charge you down like wrath over the lake.

You lock fear at the oars and when the planks start to snap

you know everything you need is where the sun rises

and the desert waits to bloom.