Tag Archives: writing

For Better or Verse

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Doug Cumming

Living for a couple of seasons in forested hills, our miniature “lake country” of North Georgia, is more than poetic. It is where we turn around on a trail when we hear the low growl of a mama bear, or … Continue reading →

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Pickens Progress

Posted on September 15, 2025 by Doug Cumming

My wife and I are living for a time in an Appalachian corner of Pickens County, Ga., watching sunsets over a 2,800-foot-high lake. They talk about “two Georgias.” This is the “other” one — rural, heavily for Trump in the … Continue reading →

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1690: Two obscure beginnings of public trust

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Doug Cumming

How do you know . . . that South Korea had an authoritarian president named Yoon, and that Yoon declared martial law last December to shut down critics, an independent media and the National Assembly? Or that he was ousted … Continue reading →

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Waves

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Doug Cumming

I miss waves. When my love and I transplant to Italy, it will be on the Adriatic. Waves there are small, but they have a lot of history. I look forward to walking the beaches of the Marche where Romans … Continue reading →

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Editors needed

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Doug Cumming

President Biden, in his farewell address warning of a new American oligarchy that owns a “tech-industrial complex,” talked about the threats to a free press. He mentioned that “editors are disappearing.” I have often told people who worry about evils … Continue reading →

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A freedom song, for Election Day

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Doug Cumming

On this morning of Election Day, 2024, I am waving the flag of a poem by Richard Wilbur called “On Freedom’s Ground: A Cantata.” Read it aloud, slowly with a touch of drama. Record yourself doing so, as I did … Continue reading →

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My W&L class with Dan Wakefield

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Doug Cumming

Dan Wakefield, an American journalist, memoirist and novelist, died in Miami two days ago, March 13. I had met him when he came to speak to us Nieman fellows in 1986 or ’87. (Dan had been a Nieman Fellow 22 … Continue reading →

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