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Grocery shopping in our home is usually done on Thursday or Friday. The upcoming week’s menu and the supermarket list are written concurrently. This saves time and money in the market. The problem with this is that we each prefer shopping in different stores. My preference is for a small grocery market. The large stores,…
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In my hometown of Oakland, New Jersey, there are two lakes: Mirror Lake and Crystal Lake. My family home was on Mirror Lake, which was commonly known as “Little Lake.” I recall the summer days when we neighborhood children gathered to swim and the winter afternoons when we skated. Occasionally, I would take my bamboo…
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The Dutch poet and playwright Judith Herzberg has presented the world with a body of work that reveals her sensitivity to fine details of a moment, those details she observes, and to the language required to express the subject. She discerns in the mundane what is elusive to others. Pieter Vandermeer writes of Ms. Herzberg:…
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is right. The prime minister is correct when he says there is “a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality.” He is accurate when he responds to Donald Trump’s taunts by saying, “Canada doesn’t live because of the United…
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A friend commented the other day that he noticed I was shifting my attention. “You’re posting poetry. Are you writing more poems?” Actually, yes. I took a hiatus from poetry to write two novels, travel, paint, garden, and begin the descent into dizzying depths of health issues. The latter comes with aging and other contributing…
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Still LifeSpreading dawnDelicate pearl-pinkFiery red weaves ragged cloudsA cardinal dartsAmong snow powderedSpruce branchesSpinkling snow dustOn grave stones Plastic Christmas flowersRibboned wreathsA mourning dove coo-oosHoney coloredLight spreads blue shadowsBeyond the wrought-iron fenceMorning rush hour trafficPasses on a gray thread of roadPoem: Still Life ©2026 Charles van HeckPhotograph: Snowy Morning ©2026 Charles van Heck
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When I first took up painting with the encouragement of the Canadian artists Terrill Welch and her husband, David Colussi, Terrill advised me to include notes on my sensory experiences when sketching a scene. These notes would include the time of day, temperature, sounds, wind or breeze direction, aromas, and other elements I observed. These…
Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal 