Tag Archives: Roanoke

Sealed-off door at 8 North Jefferson Street in Roanoke, Virginia.

Facing Shenandoah Avenue.  2026.

The building was originally constructed at the start of the 20th Century as office space for Norfolk & Western Railroad.

Intersection of Shenandoah Avenue and North Jefferson Street in Roanoke, Virginia, 2026

The building on the corner is 8 North Jefferson Street.

North Jefferson Street in Roanoke, VA, 2026

Looking south.

Nolan vs. The Bird Bullies!

Avian altercation!  A chirpity-chirpity ruckus erupted at my fifth floor windowsill this morning … two sparrows were biting and plucking at a third.  The aggressors had darker head coloring; the victim’s was lighter — I’m guessing this means it was either a female or a juvenile?

I tapped the glass pretty hard, and the bad birds took off.  Then this beleaguered bird-twerp hung out for a minute and actually looked at me as if in acknowledgment.  (Yeah, the picture quality is cruddy, but you can see the little fluff-nugget looking at me.)

I started searching my memory for a bird-themed superhero I could then proclaim myself to be … but both Marvel’s “Falcon” and Michael Keaton’s “Birdman” (2014) seemed fairly lame.  My girlfriend, who is ever more cultured than I am, invoked Walt Whitman instead:

“I sound my barbaric ‘YAWP’ over the roofs of the world!!!”



North Jefferson Street in Roanoke, Virginia, looking south, 1951

The original source for this photo is the National Archives; I found it via the cool people at Virginia Life Stories.

A misty Roanoke morning, November 2025

Tell me these do not look like coffins.

I thought Dracula had arrived in Roanoke — which would be weird, because there’s no place for The Demeter to dock.

Either that or my lifelong descent into madness had finally yielded its first visual hallucinations.

Turns out these thick metal implements were left there by an excavating company.  They’re just smallish plow blades for pushing aside snow, seen from the rear.  (They are open on the other side.)



Poetry and commentary, 2025

The past year was the best ever for poetry and commentary, with publications in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Germany, India and Bangladesh — along with a short story publication in Chile.

You can find all the links to my 2025 poetry and commentary at the link below. Thanks for coming along for the ride.  🙂

Poetry and Commentary, 2025



Christmastime in Roanoke, Virginia

2025.