How to Love a Lake

By Holly Wren Spaulding Sun contributor I walk beside Lake Michigan in every season, and in almost every weather, though it’s loveliest in summer, with bare feet, everything sparkling: the Manitou Islands, the sculptural driftwood. Most days I go to Good Harbor near Pyramid Point, but some days it’s Port Oneida, or even as far […]

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Missing Ernie

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By Jack Lane Sun contributor We have all written a sort of eulogy to Ernie Harwell in our minds. While driving down roads, listening to other baseball announcers sing their operas … while sitting at the beach, drinking in the waves and wind and feeling there was just a little piece of summer missing … […]

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Finding America

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Oomen will read from her new book, An American Map, on May 8 at 3 p.m. at the Top of the Park in Traverse City’s Park Place Hotel. Proceeds benefit the Fresh Food Partnership. By Tim Bazzett Ever since reading with great enjoyment and admiration Anne-Marie Oomen’s first memoir, Pulling Down the Barn, I have […]

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Poem for Joanne and Marge

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By Marcie Ferris It was many years ago When we first met At a WBOL meeting I will never forget A mutual friend introduced us that night We all sat together In the fading light Getting acquainted was a noisy affair Our table so loud the others did stare Who was who? I need a […]

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Invaded

By Mary Sharry Sun contributor Computer virus. The name sounds nasty, and it is. To use a non-technical term, my computer went haywire. The virus activity appeared gradually, subtly. A little pop-up here, an ad for something I didn’t want or need there. I deleted them every time they showed up. Over time, though, the […]

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To kill a deer

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By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor It was the second bullet that pierced the deer’s brain. The first one, fired through the barrel of my father’s rifle a couple minutes earlier, only maimed him as the buck bent down to eat a fallen apple in the orchard on my parents’ property — on the opening morning […]

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To the rescue

By F. Josephine Arrowood Sun contributor Garnet pushed the loaded shopping cart into the humid gloom of the parking lot, whose lights had already been extinguished. Behind her, the storeowner said goodnight and locked the Mercantile’s double glass doors before hurrying to his Jeep. As she opened her trunk, she felt cold, fat drops of […]

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Lemonade stand lessons, from a son to a father

By Bill Dungjen Sun contributor My son is seven years old. He has successfully completed his first grade year at Glen Lake School. This summer, his grandest plans include making his own independent fortune as a lemonade salesman. One hot afternoon, he asked if he could set up the lemonade stand that his mother bought […]

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A bird in the hand

By Mary Sharry For the song of the bird and the hum of the bee; heavenly father I thank thee. This was the prayer my mother suggested I use when I was frightened of such things — birds and bees, although there are no bees in this story.

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Mourning for deer

By Mary Sharry Sun contributor Nature can be harsh and beautiful at the same time. There is a resident herd of deer in our neighborhood; most of the time they live in a field across the street from our house. In early summer, the does and their fawns—sometimes there are twins—roam the village of Empire. […]

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