A Body Of Work
June 24, 2026
By Tom Poland A woman asked what made me the proudest of all I had written. It isn’t books. Maybe one. It’s not the films. It’s not the magazine…
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Summer Blink Book Reviews Return
June 22, 2026
By Reba Hull Campbell If it’s summer, that means I’m back to my annual effort to get off the screens and back to the page by reading more. In recent…
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A Curious Battle For Independence
June 17, 2026
By Tom Poland It’s a battle Britain claimed to have won, and yet it sent the Redcoats to Charleston and back to Britain ending their presence in the Carolina…
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A Rare Sighting
June 10, 2026
By Tom Poland I have seen outhouses, smokehouses, henhouses, doghouses, and all manner of birdhouses. Mankind has its jailhouses, cathouses, flophouses, and roadhouses. A first for me, I saw…
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‘Tis the season for graduations and my 2026 “20 lessons” list
June 3, 2026
By Reba Hull Campbell ‘Tis the season for graduations, new jobs and life transitions. It’s also the season for my annual updated “20 lessons” list. A number of years ago,…
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My City Of Dust Calendar
June 3, 2026
By Tom Poland Passport To Preservation John Mulhouse sent me his 2026 Abandoned New Mexico City of Dust calendar, and it’s a keeper. John’s beat is why. “The lost…
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Man, The Intruder
May 27, 2026
By Tom Poland The rains of late and spring’s approach set my mind on the Carolina bays, those coastal plain wetlands of mystery and life. The elliptical depressions are…
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The World Book
May 20, 2026
By Tom Poland A lulu of a lady sold my parents a set of the World Book Encyclopedia. Miss Lulu Goolsby to be exact. It changed my life living…
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A Striped Bass & An Oak
May 13, 2026
By Tom Poland Though my hair was chestnut brown, I was green, a young writer hoping to create something memorable. I needed inspiration and I found it in a…
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Buried Alive
May 6, 2026
By Tom Poland A road down Edisto Island way will take you past green swamps and oaks dripping with Spanish moss and shanties with bright, sky-blue doors. Churches white…
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Real Lizard Earrings
April 29, 2026
By Tom Poland I called it a green lizard. I couldn’t pronounce Anolis carolinensis back then. Heck, I hadn’t even heard of the term. But now something catches me…
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The Transistor Made History
April 21, 2026
By Tom Poland Cell phones are a big deal but to some of us the transistor was an even bigger deal. I was disobeying my parents staying up late…
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Peach Blossom Lit
April 15, 2026
By Tom Poland Come March, my thoughts turn to peach blossoms and memories of family fruit trees. One tree from youth stands above others. From my deep well of…
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Masters Memories
April 5, 2026
By Tom Poland I never had time for golf, but I love the Masters. I never miss the Sunday round on TV. It almost always provides high drama. I…
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A Man Named Twiggs
April 1, 2026
By Tom Poland He was charismatic and a lightning rod for trouble. He was a roadie for the Allman Brothers Band. What little I know of his life tells…
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Clunky Phones & Party Lines
March 25, 2026
By Tom Poland In rural Georgia the party line was our lot back in the early 1950s. When the phone rang, we counted. Our phone rang two times. Three…
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Southern Truth Tellers
March 18, 2026
By Tom Poland Each January, my thoughts turn to a fellow Georgian. James Dickey died January 19, 1997, of the same disease that took my mother’s life. On June…
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A Good Whooping
March 11, 2026
By Tom Poland I am no stranger to the flyswatter, switch, belt, and paddle. I even got a good whooping with a paint brush. I ought to be a…
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Osprey At Crooked Bridge
March 4, 2026
By Tom Poland Three birds hold me in their thrall. The osprey, whippoorwill, and oft-slighted buzzard. I love the whippoorwill’s lilting call. The noble osprey and its distinctive M-shaped…
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Blink Book Review: “The Concise Guide to South Carolina Government” by Vincent Sheheen
February 26, 2026
By Reba Hull Campbell As a self proclaimed “policy nerd,” I was excited to receive “The Concise Guide to SC State Government” by Vincent Sheheen as a Christmas gift.…
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Mischief Along The Augusta Highway
February 26, 2026
By Tom Poland A restless boy grew up in the midst of forests and pastures. Outside of biking, reading, and exploring woods, the Augusta Highway entertained me. If Rambling…
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The Ghosts Of Winter
February 18, 2026
By Tom Poland Fall in full tumble gives us a kind of X-ray vision. We see that a leafless land is a lovely land, a surprising land. We see what…
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Collard Green Memories
February 11, 2026
By Tom Poland Being the chap I was, collard greens’ smell and similarity to the stringy dark-green algae in fish ponds repulsed me. Mom would cook up a mess…
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Cast Iron Cornbread
February 5, 2026
By Tom Poland Born of fire, master of fire, and survivor of fire, my vintage cast iron cornbread mold fed many a soul. Best I figure it came to…
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The Sweetest Smoke A Man Was Ever To Smell
February 2, 2026
By Tom Poland To some, the smokehouse remains a symbol of the impoverished, rural South. Not me. I see it as a rustic savior, and I thank the late…
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My Lost Geisha
January 28, 2026
By Tom Poland It was the photograph in my father’s war album. Her white kimono. Hair black as onyx. Pale, serene face. Perfect bone structure. Gloss, a sheen upon her…
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Red Clay
January 21, 2026
By Tom Poland Drizzle drifted and spritzed as if it were January except it was October. Mists coated my camera. In its viewfinder red mud glistened in rain that…
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Stage Door Arts Academy opens January 19, bringing dance, theater, and creative confidence to Charleston families
January 19, 2026
MOUNT PLEASANT, SC – Stage Door Arts Academy officially opens its doors on Monday, January 19, offering a new performing arts home for children and teens throughout the Charleston area.…
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The Last Open Door
January 14, 2026
By Tom Poland For the first time in my life I was alone in my church. The old Regulator wall clock ticked away as I ticked away the families…
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Sardis Road
January 7, 2026
By Tom Poland Back roads never disappoint me. Such was the case with a road, paved just a tad, but deliciously dirt the rest of the way. As I…
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Kids Made Toys Once Upon A Time
December 19, 2025
By Tom Poland Christmas is coming. Toys will be high on many a list. My grandsons have outgrown toys but not that many years ago I got them remote-controlled…
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Cold, Cold, Cold
December 10, 2025
By Tom Poland A thirteen-year relationship was dying. Here comes one of those songs that arrives at a hurtful time. The song seemed written for us. You grieve, heal,…
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My Fried Chicken History
December 3, 2025
By Tom Poland As evening shadows fell, I made my way home through woods. Overpowering the peppery smell of autumn leaves, the chicken frying in Mom’s cast iron skillet…
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How the night before Thanksgiving became one of the heaviest drinking nights of the year
November 25, 2025The night before Thanksgiving has become known for heavy drinking, crowded gathering spots and increased risky behavior among young adults returning home for the holiday. National traffic safety data consistently…
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Highway Song, Part II
November 25, 2025
By Tom Poland A Sunday Drive Highways 321 and 301 meet my criteria for back roads. Little traffic. Lots of abandonment. Old stuff getting older. Those 1950 snowbirds heading…
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Highway Song, Part I
November 20, 2025
By Tom Poland A Sunday Drive I hadn’t seen him in 10 years. Him would be the preacher who buried Dad and Mom. He was preaching down South Georgia…
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Where The Dead Live On
November 12, 2025
By Tom Poland On a sultry August Sunday I drove up on Shady Grove Methodist Church. Seeing it resurrected James Agee’s “Shady Grove, Alabama, July 1936,” his description of…
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Don’t Let the Tricycle Horns of Life Scare You
November 6, 2025
By Jeff Becraft I don’t know what kid the car manufacturer took the horn off his tricycle and stuck it in my car is, but I’m sure that kid…
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Winter’s Rainy Windows
November 5, 2025
By Tom Poland I have long admired the work of a fighter pilot turned writer. He wrote under the pen name James Salter. James Arnold Horowitz volunteered for combat duty…
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Return To Pawleys
October 28, 2025
By Tom Poland Sunday lunch at the Sea View Inn. Forty-five years it had been since my daughters and I were together at Pawleys. While eating I thought about our…
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Notes From The Road
October 22, 2025
By Tom Poland June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Interstate Act. Nigh 70 years later a grid of steel, cement, and asphalt makes it impossible to see…
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The Dejected, Rejected Playwright
October 15, 2025
By Tom Poland May 2011. Jennifer’s email cut to the chase “We want you to write a play for Georgia’s Official Folk Life Play, Swamp Gravy.” “Me, write a…
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Southern Exposure—The Fly Swatter
October 9, 2025
By Tom Poland Grandmothers’ Weapon Of Choice The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “fly swatter” as “an implement used for swatting insects, typically a square of plastic mesh attached…
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Primal Fear
September 30, 2025
By Tom Poland Stumbling Onto A Corpse Besides the solitary confinement of writing, I cut myself off from the world in two places. Hard-to-reach wilderness areas and forgotten churches where…
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The Maker’s Mark
September 25, 2025
By Tom Poland The Author’s Signature Is A Commodity I can’t remember who I signed the first book for but I’ll hazard a guess it was a woman. Not…
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The Kerosene Lamp
September 17, 2025
By Tom Poland Readers Respond My September 10th post, “A Whale of a Lamp”, received reader comments that deserve sharing. Who in this era of ultra-dark-defying lighting would take…
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Dorchester County firefighters honor lives lost during the September 11th terrorist attacks
September 16, 2025
Dorchester County Fire Rescue firefighters joined to walk the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in their turnout gear, in commemoration of those who perished due to the terrorist attacks on September…
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Trident Medical recognizes life-saving efforts of Berkeley first responders
September 16, 2025
Trident Medical Center held a special challenge coin ceremony on Thursday, September 11, 2025, recognizing more than 60 first responders from agencies across Berkeley County. The group was honored for life-saving efforts…
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First regional plan to eliminate HPV cancers as a public health concern released in the U.S.
September 11, 2025The HPV Vaccination Roundtable of the Southeast launches first U.S. regional plan to eliminate HPV cancers, starting with cervical cancer as a public health concern, across the Southeast. The elimination…
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The Hometown Weekly
September 3, 2025
By Tom Poland In my youth we had a daily newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle. What we didn’t get every day was local news. That’s what made The Lincoln Journal…
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