Dear Reader,
Asking people to pay for my writing has always felt at odds with me. I don’t often get compensated for my work (the sad reality of being a writer) and asking for money privately makes me uncomfortable. But it will be difficult to one day make a living as a writer if I don’t. The addition of this paywall is a means of validating my craft, as much to myself as it is to the world. If you choose to support me, please know that I am deeply grateful. And if not, my ‘Little Things’ dispatch, as well as my archive of writing on this Substack, remains free.
My first subscriber long read is about falling in love, and summer, and features some wonderful illustrations by my talented friend Pamela Bentley, who I write about here, too, and whose work always makes me feel big things.
Hummingbird
for TessSuppose I say summer,
write the word “hummingbird,”
put it in an envelope,
take it down the hill
to the box. When you open
my letter you will recall
those days and how much,
just how much, I love you.- Raymond Carver
‘It’s nice to be in love in the summertime, isn’t it?’
A rhetorical question. I say it to Pam from within the safety of my slightly battered VW Polo that I am steering along the road that hugs Table Mountain. The sun is slipping under a blue horizon to our left, its scarlet glow turning everything pink and ephemeral, just for a moment.
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