Michael Shay's Hummingbirdminds

A reminder for my brother Tommy Shay's Paddle Out this Saturday, April 4: Join us at the Hartford Approach in Daytona Beach at 1:00 PM a...

Rob Tannenbaum wrote June 12 in the  New York Times : In songs like “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “California Girls” and “Good Vibrations,” Wilson did...

This is my version of a prose poem that I dashed off late last night. Maybe it's not a prose poem. A ramble, maybe, or just a burst of w...

The fog comes/ on little cat feet Thought of this Carl Sandburg poem as I sat watching the ocean as fog crept in. Cats weren't on my min...

They are tiny figures on the outside sandbar, straddling their surfboards, heads bobbing up with each oncoming wave, and then obscured again...

Wind from the ancient sea A hurricane-force wind blew down the pine onto my roof on a February day. The house shook and I looked out the f...

Hurricane Dora hit a couple weeks into the new school year. The lead story in that morning’s News-Journal featured an illustration of a swi...

You will forget things. As you age, that’s the mantra you hear from people who think they know better. Nobody tells you this: you forget how...

Write short , said all the experts. Be concise.  I first heard this advice as a student reporter for my university paper. Give me 500 word...

The Electric Lit site carries some cool articles about the writing life. A recent one was about writers and mental health . I've often ...

The February issue of National Geographic features an excellent -- and scary -- article about the effects of global warming on south Florid...

I'm not a Florida beach guy. Not anymore. Salt water once ran in my veins. The sun freckled my skin on a daily basis. All summer long,...

Paddle out for my brother Dan in Ormond Beach, Fla. Photo by Marcus Stephen.   Hundreds of people gathered at the Salty Church Nov. 23 i...

I wanted to share my brother Dan's obituary with my readers. Over the course of the past year, I've posted periodic updates about Da...

I can't speak for the rest of Surfer Patrol, but Patrol Leader Mike Shay says it's OK with him if openly Gay Boy Scouts are allowed ...

A watched tomato never ripens. No matter how much I stand and stare, my tomatoes will not ripen into salad fodder. I do not have super power...

This photo by John Scalzi is great in so many ways. It's from Kentucky's Creation Museum, and shows a boy riding a statue of a baby ...

What is Greg Noll's van doing in Cody? Mr. Noll catching the nightly rodeo? Mr. Noll riding the bucking horses in the nightly rodeo? Rid...