Etched in Time:
Ghosts, Souls & Spirits
Part of Musings of The Sawdust Sage™
A poetic journey across generations, through memories that linger, lives still unfolding, and dreams that stretch beyond the horizon.
Divided into three reflective sections, Ghosts of the Past, Souls of the Present, and Spirits of the Future, the collection invites readers to consider what we inherit, what we carry, and what we leave behind.
With warmth, wit, and hard-won wisdom, James Allen, writing as The Sawdust Sage™, captures the essence of small towns, big dreams, rock & roll radios, and quiet goodbyes. These poems explore family, loss, humor, hope, and the resilience of spirit in the face of change, whether found in aging hands, fading traditions, or the promise of a new generation.
Whether paging through nostalgia or holding fast to what is still ahead, Etched in Time reminds us that our stories, like sawdust caught in the light, linger, shimmer, and speak.
How Etched in Time Began
Etched in Time was inspired in part by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and its journey through past, present, and future.
That structure stayed with me.
Rather than ghosts showing a single man the course of his life, I began thinking about memory, the people around us now, and the generations still to come. From there grew the three sections of the book: Ghosts of the Past, Souls of the Present, and Spirits of the Future.
The poems are not a retelling of Dickens. The inspiration is in the framework: looking backward, paying attention to the present, and wondering what we leave for those who follow.
That idea became the spine of Etched in Time, a collection about what remains, what changes, and what each generation passes along to the next.