Category Archives: The Other Village

Looking at Light

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Dale Hobson

In the last few years, objective circumstances have not been particularly joyful, and yet joy breaks through regardless. That is because joy has nothing to do with circumstance. Looking at Light All my earliest memories are of trauma, a bare … Continue reading →

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Getting Burned

Posted on October 12, 2022 by Dale Hobson

It’s a natural response to gawk at disaster, smashed cars, burning houses, crime-scene tape going up by the flashing lights of police cars. As Thurgood Marshall said, “I love peace, but I  adore a riot.” And it’s true, right up until … Continue reading →

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Famous Cars of the North Country

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Dale Hobson

Anyone who started their driving career in the North Country herded a lot of junk from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Unless they had family money or a clandestine pharmaceutical business, rusted-out death traps were the only wheels on offer for … Continue reading →

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After a Windy Night

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Dale Hobson

Insomnia gives one the chance to explore again all those guilts and anxieties that never seem to come to resolution, to go away or even fade. There’s a whole jukebox full of worries in the brain, and a windy night … Continue reading →

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A North Country Guy’s Guide to North Country Guys

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Dale Hobson

Another poem boiled down from one of my Listening Post columns. While it is not necessarily 100% true, it is certainly truth-adjacent, as many long-suffering North Country women can attest. A North Country Guy’s Guide to North Country Guys A newcomer to … Continue reading →

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Hobson’s Choice

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Dale Hobson

I’ve been kind of obsessed this spring and summer with how many sunny days have been made gorgeous by flotillas of high cumulus clouds. It is as if the overly-rosy memories of summers long past have been made manifest. Those … Continue reading →

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Driving at Night

Posted on September 17, 2022 by Dale Hobson

My night vision is getting too poor to enjoy this form of meditation from the driver’s seat, but there is a special form of peace to be had running down a smooth empty highway in the middle of the night. … Continue reading →

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Knotweed

Posted on September 6, 2022 by Dale Hobson

Japanese knotweed, or Japonica, is a nearly unkillable invasive ornamental that will fight it out with the cockroaches and rats for control of the post-apocalyptic wasteland, I predict. Or maybe I’m just sore from all the digging. Knotweed In early … Continue reading →

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Concerning the Cricket

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Dale Hobson

The summer has gotten away from me. Between travel and a stupefying bout of Covid, I have not been able to write, or at least not well. I returned to my vast archive of Listening Post essays, looking for a … Continue reading →

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Elders on Sunday

Posted on July 2, 2022 by Dale Hobson

Somehow I never managed to share this poem from “Light Year” on Facebook or in this blog. I come back to it now because it is central to the themes of my work-in-progress, “The Other Village,” a volume of poetry … Continue reading →

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