Column Archive

Have Fireflies Left Us? Tom Poland Posted 9/15/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netAmong sedges and along tree lines, across lawns and fields they’ll soon cease blinking. Maybe they’ve already ended their nights of miraculous lights. The experts say they left in August. They being lantern bugs, lightning bugs, or fireflies. I...

Coming Full Circle Tom Poland Posted 9/13/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI felt like I’d been tied to the whipping post. I was as low as the proverbial snake’s belly. May 30 a tornado destroyed my Athens, Georgia, home. My marriage was floundering, and I found myself with nothing but the...

Glancing At Leaves Tom Poland Posted 9/6/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThis time of year I catch myself glancing at leaves. On walks through woods and bike rides along trails, I see the occasional red leaf. I glance again and see a few more leaves turning crimson. Soon red outnumbers green....

Catching Up With Lou Miller Tom Poland Posted 8/30/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netNo. 87 lay on Buddy Bufford Field as still as a stone. Louis Miller, senior end, had broken ribs, but better days lay ahead. The undefeated Red Devils would beat Dade County to claim the 1960 Class C...

Learning Along The Estuary Tom Poland Posted 8/15/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThe 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 to public schools. A school bus boat brings to mind a floating...

Waterfall Country Tom Poland Posted 8/9/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netSeveral 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 cemented itself. “Hiking to waterfalls is a grueling form of physical conditioning. Mountain terrain is...

The Miraculous Green Lizard Tom Poland Posted 8/9/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netWe 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. Something else to consider, the connection between a napkin holder I gave my...

The Ruins Of Chappels Tom Poland Posted 7/19/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netHighway 34. It’s my route east to places like Ninety-Six, Abbeville, and Greenwood. When I drive Highway 34, I’m in my element—the back roads, but some back roads don’t easily give up their secrets. I’ve written that you can...

The Air Collision Time Forgot Tom Poland Posted 7/10/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI visit forgotten churches more than the church I call my own. I feel a haunting at an unfrequented church, a poignant peaceful feeling. I see pews, a pulpit, and the occasional piano. A hymnal now and then....

Outdoor Men Of Letters Tom Poland Posted 6/29/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netBeing a native Georgian, I didn’t grow up reading South Carolina writers. Nor do I recall reading Georgia writers, but I read a lot. Hemmed in as I was by strict parenting and Georgia woodlands, magazines and books connected...

A Scrape In The Sand Tom Poland Posted 6/28/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netSand washes away. Memories last forever.The year was 1982. That would have been South Carolina Wildlife magazines 28th anniversary. I worked in film then and I felt I was part of the magazine staff though I wasn’t. While...

The Beach That Was Tom Poland Posted 6/26/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netFrom afar the skyline looks like that of a city, and it is. Myrtle Beach’s skyline of hotels seems to dwarf the skyline of all other South Carolina cities. It even has a SkyWheel similar to Atlanta’s SkyView Ferris...

Lone Star, The Rambling Ghost Tom Poland Posted 6/14/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI’ve long felt that two of South Carolina’s prettier community names are Silverstreet and Lone Star. Silverstreet I’ve seen many times. Those names, evocative and atmospheric, charm the ear. One conjures up biblical streets of gold; the other...

My Father's Failed Quest Tom Poland Posted 6/12/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netDad had a saying. “I won’t let it whip me.” He prevailed over stubborn bolts, obstinate lawn mowers, welding projects, and just about anything that crossed his path, except one small, elusive critter. Hummingbirds. Oh he had no problem...

My Good Friend, Steve Blackmon Tom Poland Posted 6/5/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThe writing life introduces me to some memorable people. Steve Blackmon found me when his daughter, Myra, read my feature, “Remembering Danburg,” in an online journal of Southern culture. She told her father about my story and Steve...

Chasing The Ivorybill Tom Poland Posted 5/30/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.net“Chasing the Swamp Ghost” caught my eye, and I read Garden & Gun’s feature about photographer Bobby Harrison’s quest to capture irrefutable evidence that the ivorybill woodpecker still lives. As I read, I came across a vague reference to the...

My SC Wildlife Dream Machine Tom Poland Posted 5/25/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI grew up in a large hardwood forest in Georgia, and I rambled in woods every chance I got. I saw deer, wild turkey, ducks, and coveys of quail. When they flushed, it sounded like a bomb going...

The Day The Sky Fell Tom Poland Posted 5/23/23 By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netA beautiful blue-sky afternoon it was. As I walked back from my mailbox a freshly killed squirrel with half its head missing fell right in front of me. What a shock. I looked up to see a red-shouldered...

A Favorite Place Tom Poland Posted 5/23/23 By Tom Poland A Southern Writer www.tompoland.net tompol@earthlink.net Each spring I write of three places, three beautiful places where colonies of rocky shoals spider lilies bloom. One is quite accessible; one is perhaps the world’s largest colony, and the other, though difficult to...