Persephone Abbott

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About Back to Nature

Posted on February 7, 2026

Intending to get that next Substack post up online yet unable to get to the task for weeks, I finally went to my bookcase and found my copy of Harum Scarum. I had already decided in advance that I would defintely not post the final short story from my father’s book. Keith Abbott’s Harum Scarum is made up of six stories and all of them are autobiographical. “You’re lucky,” a friend said to me. “You have material about your father. I wish I could learn more about my father.” Well, the materials are not only about my father. In the last story, “Back to Nature,” I am in the picture and so is my mother. Harum Scarum was published by Coffee House Press in…

Panto?

Posted on February 6, 2026

My friend said, “By the way, do you want to see the dress rehearsal for Tristan und Isolde?” “Why, yes.” I had a hunch I must have seen at least one production of this particular Wagner opera somewhere during the past forty years. You know how it is, witnessing multiple versions of the same murky set that faintly resembles a Star Trek episode and grimy opera singers in tunics wandering around a minimalist decor, eager to lean on a wall for accoustical adjustments. It all becomes a bit of a blur. A few days before the five hours of “geniessen“-ing in the opera house, I arrived at a modern and sterile high school building for a Chi Gong lesson. I could barely open my…