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Miller in Italy: Lake Como

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I’m walkin’ with Joaquin this month in Italy, where he spent many months in the mid-1870s after establishing himself in London. As I ride trains from place to place, I’m reading his Complete Poetical Works , which he put together in The Hights in 1897, and pulling out tidbits and advice for writers. Miller not only collected his poems (the ones he would stand by, he wrote; the rest were reactions to his times, ruined by critics), he talks about them—about where he wrote them and what they meant to him. They’re beautiful. With the rhythm of the rails, I sound out the meter in my head, my fingers correcting the paragraph breaks where the archived text has clumped things wrong. Miller's writing is incredibly lyrical, and whatever reputation he had for gaining fame before he fully developed his craft, he certainly mastered it with the help of his masters, whom he sought in libraries and museums in his European travels. Robert Browning invited him to Venice, where Miller wrote some ...
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Parking Lot Slope: History Nerds Have Bicycle Coffee

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New green grasses were covering every open hill, and the wind blew colder up there than I had expected it to when I left the house on a January Wednesday. But at a picnic table in the lee of the parking lot, I was treated to a cup of coffee brewed by an intrepid biker and fellow history nerd.  Morgan Fletcher , who I met last year on a history walk, rides his bike like Joaquin Miller used to ride ranges. When he's resting and recovering, he searches old newspaper clippings and blogs about them on Fastest Slow Guy You Know . We've become good friends lately by dumping loads information into each other's email boxes, piecing together the stories of this spot on the hill. He unzips a bag that is shaped like, and suspended in, the triangle of space in his bike frame, and pulls out a small stove and a tiny coffee-making apparatus. He grinds the beans as he boils the water, and presses their fragrant spirit right into the Anchor Hocking cups I've brought in a tiny basket.  He...
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Europe: The Miller Sessions Tour

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Imagine my delight when I got the most wonderful email the other week, out of the blue. The subject line was,  "Fellow Miller Enthusiast." Hi Kristen, I stumbled over your page completely by chance, and so glad I did. There are not many people any more who cherish and even know who Joaquin Miller was. This is probably a bit strange, but my name is Espen and I am a Norwegian singer-songwriter who have a project called Miller Sessions. We put music to some of Millers poems and I am travelling across Europe and playing them.  I have no other intentions than saying hi to a fellow Miller enthusiast. There are of course a lot of wierd and funny stories connected to why a Norwegian would take on such a project, but I will leave it here for the moment :-) If you are interested in hearing the music you find us on your favourite streaming platform as Miller Sessions. Any how, thanks for remembering him and spreading his stories. All the best Espen Langbråten Well of course, I immediate...
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