Michael Downs
@michaeldowns
Writer. A few books, plenty of journalism, and a fascination with the song "Sitting on Top of the World." "It is not time that is lacking, only focus." – Zagajewski
What a gift to hold this novel, just arrived from @regalhouse.bsky.social and how great it will be to crack its spine and again be in the good company of Skip Hays, who is much missed. #BookSky
No #SundaySentence from me this week, but here is my dog pal, Raven (name evoking the poem), performing her best trick in a secondhand bookstore in Montana.
"What do you remember from that day when the circus fell to ash?" 7.6.1944 – eighty-two years ago - a circus tent burned in Hartford, killing nearly 170 people. In my book about the fire, The Greatest Show, a character notes that "the redeeming currency of old pain is drama."
What I learned at #ZootownFestival: 1. #TedeschiTrucks always deliver, even to those of us far from the stage. 2. Big dang binoculars justify the effort to bring them. 3. I'll forget the bad food and long remember Tedeschi shredding her guitar and baring her soul on "Love Has Something Else to Say."
The cool night air blesses my face, the stars shine brighter than ever, and the near-full moon has tears in its eyes. - a #SundaySentence from The Night is Not For You, a novel by @emanquotah.bsky.social
More than 20 years ago, my wife and gave me an ash sapling for my birthday, and we planted it in our Montana front yard. Aphids can kill ash saplings. So I spent much time on a step ladder with soapy water, brushing aphids from one leaf, then another. There's no tree I love more than this one.
Peak blossom day at Packer Meadow, Lolo Pass, Idaho, 5200 feet. Selish and Nimiipuu people have long harvested the roots for winter food. Lewis and Clark stopped here twice. We heard it will snow tomorrow so visited today.
@sammyzorba.bsky.social, here's another for your Jim Harrison collection. "I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny, than die a smartass."
Hardly a man stirred from the meager protection of his sleeping bag until 11 a.m., when Shackleton ordered all hands out to kill penguins. – a #SundaySentence from Alfred Lansing's ENDURANCE about the 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition.
Johnny started to cry the way only a thirteen-year-old could, as if the whole world was sitting on his face. – a #SundaySentence from Mystic River, the second in two weeks. It's pretty easy to find good sentences in Lehane's tragedy.
Pre-dawn darkness, coffee, a book and porch light to read by, with a good dog. Call it contentment.
Generative AI might be fun and clever, the goofy adolescent of the tech world growing ito a terrifying maturity. But can it make literary art? Come to Baltimore's CityLit festival on April 11 to argue, agree, or just listen as we wrestle with AI's challenges to the literary artist.
"Once upon a time, when men and women hurtled through the air on metal wings, when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom of the sea ..." –a #SundaySentence from A.S. Byatt's marvelous THE DJINN IN THE NIGHTINGALE'S EYE. More to come from this one next week.
“Now I saw colors and knew I wouldn’t cry forever.” – a #SundaySentence from Mary Kay Zuravleff's novel, AMERICAN ENDING.
In "Report," my newest essay published by The Missouri Review, a hidden painting comes to light in a Kraków courtyard and reveals much about children and war. missourireview.com/report-by-mi...
A reminder from my alma mater. #Journalism #FreePress #FirstAmendment
Meet Raven. We brought her to live with us a week ago today. She's petite, a year old, about 35 pounds, still a bit skittish, and celebratory in the snow. German Shepherd mix? Probably. Definitely a good dog.
A wonderful thing about books is that no matter how old they might be, if you've never read them, they can make you want to go to the window and shout "See this new thing I found!" Colm Toibin's THE MASTER, from 2004, read to me as if it were published this morning. It's that fresh and real.
At the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, photo taken 1/2/26.
Five years ago, sore losers assaulted our government, goaded by the sorest loser. Congress pardoned the insurrection's leader in an impeachment vote; the sorest loser pardoned others. The rest of us must recall the facts of #January6 and tolerate no more offenses against democracy.
At #CrystalBridges art museum in Arkansas, came across this statue and immediately thought I was in the presence of #SolomonKane. @patrickzircher.bsky.social
"The light was no more than a mean and taunting reminder of what light could be, a rumor of what light there once was." – a #SundaySentence from Kevin Barry's The Heart in Winter, once again, because the book could supply Sunday Sentences to last several glorious years.
My new Great Blue Heron. Design by northern Michigan printmaker Gwen Frostic (1906-2001), ink by Jesse of @lineandlegacytattoo
A #SundaySentence from John Cheever's story, "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill."
Once again for Thanksgiving, this poem, following a year of miraculous good and formidable ill. You gave me gifts, God-Enchanter. I give you thanks for good and ill. Eternal light in everything on Earth. As now, so on the day after my death. -- "Thankfulness," Czesław Miłosz; trans. by Robert Haas