By Tom Poland   Its exoskeleton brings the creature in Alien to mind. It’s armed with needle-sharp claws and glistens as if waxed. It bristles with filaments like stinging nettle,…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   I go back now, back to August 1, 2012. That’s the day the University of South Carolina Press published Save The Last Dance For Me. Strange…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   Why do we need cutlines? Simple. To better serve the reader. A cutline needs to be right. Long after the writer is gone, his work will…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   A Sunday before Christmas it was. With the gifts all wrapped, I had a bit of time. I wanted to see the monument where Mayor T.J.…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland I dreamed I was in a football game again. Then I awoke. Such disappointment. Other than playing in a game again, the next best thing would be…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   You reach a point in life where you look backwards a lot. I recall my days studying Journalism at the University of Georgia. Turns out I…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   During my not quite 10 years at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources I worked among talented illustrators, filmmakers, designers, photographers, and artists. I watched…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   With winter knock, knock, knocking on their door, people are thinking of storm doors and weather stripping. Well, drafty old screen doors occupy my mind. Recent…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   I wanted to hunt birds when a boy. Problem was no one would take me hunting. Dad tried but hunting wasn’t in his blood. And so…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   On a November Saturday, I drove to the geographic heart of Georgia. The cool breath of autumn and a blue-sky day had pulled people outdoors. I…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   December 1, 1969, was no ordinary Monday. It was a day when your birthday was your destiny. In Athens, Georgia’s Benton Apartments my roommates and I…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   Daddy set me straight. “If you want some spending money, get a job.” Thus did I work two jobs while going through college at Georgia. I…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   Giving Old Tin New Life During my school days the yellow bus rolled me past chicken houses. In 1972, when I taught creative writing in Lincolnton,…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   When I see a clawfoot tub, which is rare, four memories surface. First, I go back to my grandfather’s old homeplace. Next I go back to…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland On a Sunday walk I spotted a splash of blue. Blue wildflowers. They say blue flowers are sometimes difficult to grow in gardens. “They say.” That was…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   I stumbled across an old magazine feature of mine and it made me recall stops I’d made along that long, winding road called “Career.” Some memories…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   It was 1985 when I spent three days in Reno. I didn’t shoot a man just to watch him die, Johnny, but I conjured up images…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   I read that fragrances stimulate recall more so than any other sense. I knew from experience that it had to be true. You and I, we’re…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   The Work Behind It When I was a boy, come Thanksgiving, we observed a tradition that’s decidedly different today. Dad would mix some two-cycle gas, sharpen…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   November 15 my father will have been gone twenty years. Twenty years. Seems like yesterday when he lay in a bed at MUSC in Charleston. Seems…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland The children of Sandy Island board a school bus boat for an eight-minute journey across the Waccamaw River to the mainland. There, they ride a traditional bus…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   Several hikes proved easy. One proved tougher than nails. By the time we made it to the third waterfall of the day, an idea had firmly…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   We call it a lizard, except it’s not. It’s an anole, and it can re-grow its tail, “regenerate” in the words of scientists. Think about that.…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

By Tom Poland   A Sunday sojourn found me at Healing Springs near Blackville, South Carolina. There I stood on Gods Acre, property deeded to God. Palm Sunday it was,…

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts