by Bela Johnson | Oct 10, 2025 | animals, Maine, nature, New Mexico, silence, Uncategorized, wildlife
I lived four years in the high desert mountainsof New Mexico, the ranch house ringedby variegated greens of piñon pine,cedar and Ponderosa, and beyond the forestlay fields of sage, their silver-gray shimmerunbroken but for wind, the dark shadowsof ravens, and the...
by Bela Johnson | Dec 19, 2022 | lifestyle, Maine, nature, perspective, Uncategorized, wildlife
Somewhere there are sheets of blue icestitching up the last of the open water,but I am not there, only memory servesto dish up that young woman in hernew figure skates, striking outover the frozen pond, what those livingin worlds of water call a small lake,and Boom!...
by Bela Johnson | Jun 15, 2022 | country living, happiness, Maine, musings, nature, Uncategorized
Have you ever heard something fallunder water, the dull scrapeof a fishing weight onto granite rock,the drag, fisherman on the surface,oblivious to you hiding, suspendedalongside dull mossy green bass,still and not struggling betweencrevasses of boulders, tumbled by...
by Bela Johnson | Dec 4, 2018 | Maine, nature, poetry, Uncategorized
She knew it was safe, now her feet chose a path leading far from dark uncertainties, of boarded-up options into an oasis of light, a clearing of both heart and mind, a dendrological dive into oneness with nature, which tree was which, identifying those whose leaves...
by Bela Johnson | May 29, 2018 | country living, lifestyle, Maine, nature, Uncategorized
The cabin was bought fully furnished from an elderly couple who left behind what would now be considered valuable antiques. Two small bedrooms replete with horsehair beds, a combination Glenwood wood/kerosene kitchen stove; round golden oak drop-leaf table poised...
by Bela Johnson | Nov 15, 2017 | Maine, nature, perspective, Uncategorized
Listening to an Annie Proulx’s Barkskins on audiobook while painting today, I think I am no storyteller. A poet, yes. Fleshing out characters for a story seems intrusive somehow, as though I were borrowing another’s eyes so that I might view the world in a different...
