I’ve met a lot of interesting people in my lifetime. Some were highly educated, some were successful businessmen, and some had enough credentials hanging on their walls to wallpaper a small house. But one of the most remarkable men I ever met was a farmer in bib overalls named Earl…

I’ve spent a good portion of my life around music and musicians, and one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to like somebody to make beautiful music with them. I’ve played with musicians I genuinely enjoyed being around, and others whose company I could have done without. But something remarkable happens when somebody counts off a song…

When I was growing up, I don’t remember anybody sitting me down and giving me profound advice about how to live my life. I’ve joked over the years that about the only thing my father ever taught me was how to catch a ball. He was a sportsman. He played professional football and semi-pro basketball…

There is something bothering me about the conversation we’re having around artificial intelligence. We’re giving the machine too much credit. Sometimes we’re giving it credit for what’s good. Sometimes we’re blaming it for what’s bad. Either way, we’re forgetting about the person sitting in front of it…

For much of my life, I thought families came with black sheep and white sheep. The white sheep were the ones who fit in. They followed the rules, made the family proud and somehow understood what was expected of them. Then there was the black sheep. The difficult one. The disappointment. The one who didn’t quite fit the family picture…

My father was a big man in just about every sense of the word. He was a big, redheaded Irishman who weighed well over 200 pounds and had played professional football for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the leather-helmet days. Then he had me. I topped out at about five-foo-nine…

There comes a time in life when you have to stop walking down a one-way street. It took me a long time to understand that. I’m in my 80s now, and I’ve outlived every close friend I ever had. I’m not talking about acquaintances or people I knew casually. I’m talking about the friends you could call at two in the morning. The people you laughed with, worked with…

When I was a younger man, I thought I had the rest of my life planned. I wanted to write songs, travel, buy a motorhome, and eventually settle somewhere on the beach in Todos Santos, Baja California. After decades of working, I believed I had earned the chance to slow down and enjoy life at my own pace. Life had other plans…

I heard a simple line in a movie the other night: “What doesn’t bend, breaks.” It wasn’t meant to be profound. It was just a passing remark before the story moved on. But it stayed with me. As I was getting ready for bed that night, another image appeared in my mind. I could see an entire riverbank covered with smooth river rocks…

I have a question for you. How many poems have you written that no one has ever read? How many stories, letters, journal entries, or treasured memories are tucked away in a drawer or saved on your computer? Perhaps you’ve written about your childhood, your parents, your husband or wife, your children…