Bill Pearse

Recent Posts

Your own personal Jesus

By Bill Pearse on January 30, 2026 • ( 10 )

Thirty years ago I moved to Seattle, sight unseen. I was living in Philadelphia with my girlfriend in an artist loft in a bad part of town. That winter in Philadelphia was the worst one in years, as was the… Read More ›
That one January in the UK

By Bill Pearse on January 29, 2026 • ( 7 )

As January came to a close we left our rental in Bath and made our way down to Canterbury. I remember thinking we’ll probably never be back here, and feeling a sadness in that. But it was more the fact… Read More ›
High Point Way

By Bill Pearse on January 27, 2026 • ( 7 )

I went back up Tiger Mountain, the High Point Way trail that cuts through a former homeless camp, Tent City 4. That camp kept getting moved until it landed here, at the base of Tiger Mountain smack dab on the… Read More ›
Breaking Bad before we knew it

By Bill Pearse on January 24, 2026 • ( 14 )

It took us 13 years to wise up to it, but we finally watched Breaking Bad all the way through, five seasons, fifty-some hours of content. Prior to the last episode I went back to The Atlantic archives to read… Read More ›
Human years

By Bill Pearse on January 22, 2026 • ( 10 )

1/21/26 The sound of the cock crowing in the morning is doleful the way it peaks and trails off. It’s so cold when the headlights hit the road it is all diamonds, the frost. Up ahead it’s the old guy… Read More ›
Granite Mountain lookout, MLK

By Bill Pearse on January 19, 2026 • ( 8 )

I went back to Granite Mountain, one of the local climbs off the interstate maybe a half an hour from our house. You drive east to Snoqualmie Pass and it’s right before the pass. I-90 goes from Seattle to Boston… Read More ›
High January

By Bill Pearse on January 18, 2026 • ( 13 )

In the morning the biting cold as I’m walking in the dark. Some sweet smell of wood fire smoke and the din of far-off traffic. The din is like a distant waterfall in the woods, always there. The thrum of… Read More ›
This house of ours

By Bill Pearse on January 14, 2026 • ( 6 )

Dark early mornings with the smell of candle wax and incense. My cotton T-shirt wet from the cat suckling me. The bistro lamps on the chicken coop out back and the occasional silhouettes of deer passing by, pausing to chew… Read More ›
Was

By Bill Pearse on January 13, 2026 • ( 17 )

I’d finally become that guy you see walking around the neighborhood at odd hours wearing a fluorescent high-visibility vest. Sure it made sense as a safety measure but people in those vests always irked me, their look-at-me-I’m-so-responsible attitude, the way… Read More ›