Cypress Knees

A cypress knee — Jay Allison’s memento from a visit to Florida, a tour of a cypress knee museum, and a radio story about “an elevated, transcendent beauty we become aware of at death.” (Photo by Rob Rosenthal.)

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“Cypress Knees” by Jay Allison is one of those radio stories that’s hard to describe. Even Jay kinda, sorta stumbled over explaining it when I spoke with him in late July of this year. In short, you might say it’s a sonic, poetic study of hardship, memory, and death.

That’s a pretty ethereal description for a story. Not something an editor is likely to know what to do with if you pitched the story to them that way. Editors typically like something much more concrete.

But, Jay says “concreteness” leaves out a lot of great stories that are hard to pin down when you explain them but genius when you listen to them. “Cypress Knees” is clearly the latter and the feature on today’s Saltcast.

Cheers,

Rob

PS – “Cypress Knees” was part of a series called “The Life Stories Connection.” And click here for more on Jay Allison.

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