Tag Archives: Virginia

No, there was no escaped tiger running around Cave Spring yesterday.

That was an April Fool’s joke.

I’ve gotta hand it to you people — you’re sharp.  There were verrrry few people who fell for my ruse this year.  (You distinguished believers know who you are.)

Maybe I went too far in naming the fictional “Jowicker” zoological agency.  Or maybe my citing of witness “April Flanagan” was a little too on the nose.

Oh, well.  I can still reminisce with pride about last year’s gem of a hoax.  That one actually worked a little too well — I spent days afterward clarifying for people that I had not joined a traveling dance company for middle-aged performers.



Escaped tiger in southern Roanoke.

People, 2025 could not get any weirder than this.  There is now an escaped tiger in the vicinity of Cave Spring/southern Roanoke.  Check the local news.  The radio station is doing better than TV in keeping up with the story, I think, even if there isn’t much detail yet.

Supposedly the animal escaped from its temporary enclosure on Mill Mountain — it was being transported by Jowicker Large Game Farm between Knoxville, TN and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.  It apparently a “juvenile,” which means it isn’t full-sized, but the news is saying it could easily kill a person.  So don’t mess with it.

There is a Cave Spring resident, April Flanagan, who told the radio that she spotted the animal walking north alongside North Jefferson Street.

I will keep you posted when I learn more.  Please be safe.



Mark your calendars for David Walton’s “Closing Arguments” on April 4th in Roanoke!

“Closing Arguments” is a new play written by local playwright David Walton — and one of its stars is none other than my friend and fellow Mary Washington alumnus, the brilliant Russell Morgan.

So check it out!  It opens on April 4th, 7:30 PM at 302 Campbell Avenue, SE in Roanoke.  You cand find out more about the show (including ticketing information) right here.



“Bards Across the Pond” is now available over at Amazon.

You can order your copy right here.  Local Gems Press developed this anthology to honor the rich poetic traditions in both America and the United Kingdom. 

Bards Across the Pond includes work from over 120 poets across the United States and over 50 poets from various regions in the UK.  (I am one of the former — if you purchase the volume, I hope you enjoy “The Rough, Violet Stone.”) 😉 



Hershberger Road, Roanoke, Virginia, March 2025

I took this shot because it shows how mountains encircle Roanoke.  (From this one particular place on Hershberger Road, you can see them in the distance in the west, north and east.)

For newcomers hailing from a very flat place like Long Island, this can actually mess with your sense of direction — because your mind might unconsciously use the nearest mountain as a frame of reference.  (It should be noted here, however, that I have always had a lousy sense of direction.  I was legendary in New York for easily becoming lost.)



The paragon of Southern culture and the crown jewel of Hershberger Road.

Krispy Kreme.

Roanoke, Virginia.

Photo of Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 2009

Seen from the Fredericksburg train station.

Photo credit: Bsteckler, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

I can see!!! I can see!!!

I was at first taken aback by my need to seek (sigh) bifocals.  But that feeling was mitigated entirely by the return of … the world!!  It is rendered in such exquisite detail — even things that are far away!!  (I had no idea that I needed glasses so badly.)

Roanoke’s sweeping wooded vistas are once again completely novel to me.  It’s beauty times two for a transplanted New Yorker.  🙂



New(ish) train mural off Kirk Avenue.

The local artist is John Murrill; I think this was completed last year.

My photo here is terribly cropped, but I just loved those tree branches at top and wanted to keep them.

Stand in the place where you live. (Now face north.)

Check out these awesome Christmas presents I received from some totally cool Roanoke friends — bookstands for displaying some of the publications that have featured my poems.  🙂

Also among the Yuletide goodies were an Irish coin and a piece of Connemara marble — ideal for setting up beside my copy of The Galway Review 12.