Ritual & Word Play by Steven Faulkner

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Ritual & Word Play

Steven Faulkner on Ancient & Modern Witnesses to a Fruitful Endowment

I found myself walking along a camel track with three old men on their way to a shrine on the ancient island of Crete. I was listening, because I have little to say at times like this, only questions. It was a hot day in June, sultry, with a warm wind off the sea, our sandals kicking the dust, stepping over donkey dung, and avoiding the roadside thistles. Sometimes we caught a glimpse of the ocean.

The Athenian Philosopher

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Steven Faulkner teaches creative writing at Longwood University in southern Virginia. He is the author of Waterwalk: A Passage of Ghosts (2007) and Bitterroot: Echoes of Beauty and Loss (2016). Both books are memoirs of father-son journeys that followed the paths of missionary priests: Marquette (in Waterwalk) and De Smet (in Bitterroot).

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