From Emily’s Bridge (Sunset, Saturday, 15 October 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, FROM EMILY’S BRIDGE (Sunset from Corydon, Harrison County, Ind.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.At my sister’s place there’s a wooden footbridge from the driveway to the house, over a small brushy ravine, and at the driveway end, a great view to the west. I perched atop her monstrous white 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins 24-valve turbo diesel truck (which she called Billy Blanco) for this view. We had just had a great day remembering Emily.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Live in a Fortress

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a fortress, high, all alone, in the high rocks, with all, everything I needed, a white thick-walled tibetan sort of place curved and presenting no corners, and I would remain here, quietly enduring, from time to time receiving news of a friend or loved one passing away, but remaining here, affected to be sure, at times even weeping, but undisturbed, and with each passing perhaps a thin layer of the outer wall powders away, all my friends, all my family, who make it possible for me to have a fortress in the first place, I’ll outlive them all, naturally, so fortified.