My muse departs in
 sadness from the darkened house.
 Spring will come again.

Here is this weeks excerpt from my latest novel, The Awakening of Russell Henderson. Stay tuned for next week’s.

We drove in silence. I was lost in my thoughts of last night as we continued north on Highway 83 to White River and turned left on 183 towards the Badlands National Park and then to Rapid City. We went through the little town of Wanblee and to the Badlands. We didn’t have time to do a tour or any hiking, but we did go to an overlook. We stared out on a ghostly moonscape of eye numbing white rising out of a grassy base. Weathered, tortured spires and rimpled bluffs  went on forever into the distance. I stood there in awe. I could not believe what I was seeing. My chest almost ached with wonder of this landscape. My awe turned into an overwhelming emotion, bringing a huge lump in my throat and tears to my eyes. 

Hanna broke her silence and said, “This is so amazing. I had no idea that anyplace like this could exist on the face of this planet. What do you think?”

Seeing this and everything that happened yesterday, I was full of unknown feelings and I couldn’t answer her. I was too choked up. I simply looked at her, smiled a weak smile and nodded.

My muse has been resting somwhere and I need to wake her up so I’m going to write some haiku for a while to get her going again. Here’s No. 1. Hopefully stay tuned for more.

 Illusions abound.
 We walk through desperate lives.
 Birds still sing their songs.