Last month, I submitted my book manuscript, a biography of H. P. Lovecraft and his New York City period, to my publisher, capping nearly two years of imaginative immersion and intensive writing. Now, I’m waiting for the peer reviewers’ critiques, a nerve-racking experience familiar to anyone who has worked with an academic journal or press. All that considered, I’m ready to return to my desk. I love reading and writing in the autumn.
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Earlier this past May, my wife and I shared a brief, restful trip to Hudson, New York. I imagine that we resembled the stereotypical black-clad bohemians regularly hopping off the Amtrak train and searching for a country retreat away from the commotion of New York and yet replete with cultural amenities. A small, former industrial city along the Hudson River, Hudson has reinvented itself as an arts and food epicenter in recent years.
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A few months ago when the country appeared to be moving away from pandemic life (or, at least, could realistically hope for such a transition in the foreseeable future), I began to re-introduce myself to New York City. Losing myself in a bookstore. Relaxing outside a cafe. Even braving a sparsely attended movie. After living in cities all my adult life, I found myself needing to learn how to be an urbanite again — the expected aftershock following a year and many months of effective hibernation.
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While venturing beyond my own Jersey City neighborhood for only the second time in 2021, I stopped at an overpass above an abandoned rail corridor, the Bergen Arches. Several local organizations are advocating for this space — unused since 1957 — to be reactivated as part of the East Coast Greenway. This would connect Jersey City with surrounding municipalities and provide both a recreational pathway and park to residents. It would be transformative.
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The arrival of spring brings with it a cautious sense of renewal this year. With the increasing availability of the coronavirus vaccine and a presidential administration valuing public health, science, honesty, and compassion, one might begin to imagine our lives transforming into something recognizable.
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Another Town on the Hudson 