Bob and Robin Bires
Ferris Robinson
I first met Bob Bires in a creative writing class we took together at UTC. It was clear the McCallie teacher seated next to me was wildly talented and indeed he went on publish his stories and poetry in a variety of esteemed literary journals.
Bob taught two of my sons at McCallie, and their appreciation of literature was nurtured. I run into Bob and his wife, Robin, a few times a year and am always so glad to see them.
When Bob called me a couple of weeks ago to say he had just published his first book, I was honored that he thought enough of me to let me know. Proud and excited, I told him I couldn’t wait to get my hands on “small intentions,” a collection of short, very short, stories.
Two days later Bob suffered a massive brain bleed. Wringing my hands and sending up prayers for healing like hundreds of other people, I waited, unsure of everything.
Three weeks later, Robin called to say they were at Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta and that they were beyond impressed with the facility and the care and the plan for healing. She also said Bob had wanted me to have his book.
Keeping busy and staying hyper-focused on immediate and necessary arrangements and tasks, Robin said she hadn’t cried yet. “I can’t,” she said. “I have too much to do.”
I get it. She will grieve this profound injury at some point, but she can’t give into it and do what needs to be done for her partner, her husband. Her beloved.
I had the book the next day, and to say I can’t put it down does not do it justice.
You can’t not put it down. The collection of 100 tiny stories, each exactly 100 words each, would be remarkable simply for the feat of stringing together exactly 100 words that make sense and doing it 100 times.
But “small intentions” is more than that. Powerful, elegant and evocative, his carefully- (oh-so-carefully) chosen words tell stories, evoke feelings and break your heart. I needed a minute to collect myself, let his words sink in, before turning the page. But believe me I turned that page.
I wanted to share one here, and searched for the perfect 100 words. How to choose? The one about the childhood fire? The one about a teenager buying pot or the one about the short lives of dogs?
As described on Amazon, “Captured in these pages are the tiniest fractions of lives - the seen, the dreamt, the done or the undone, the once was or the might happen, the sweet, the iniquitous, the said or the meant, the regretted, the ridiculous, even the peaceful. Like flashes from a strobe, these stories, often with a mordant sense of humor, freeze, distort, and illuminate their characters before releasing them back into the larger whole of existence.”
Yep. That is the perfect description for this book, except to add that these flashes are bam-bam-bam, packed in a row, leaving you gasping at their truth. But after a breath or two you gotta turn the page for more.
The truth is, “small intentions” is remarkable. As Chet LeSourd said of this book, “Byers seems to fear nothing. There’s hardly a rock he won’t lift to see what’s underneath.”
Bob dedicated his first book to Robin, “for over four decades of supporting my writing (and everything else). And it’s the everything else that hangs in the air
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Ferris Robinson is the author of three children’s books, “The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” “The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds,” and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series “If Bugs Are Banished.” “Making Arrangements” is her first novel and is available in paperback and on Kindle. “Dogs and Love - Stories of Fidelity” is a collection of true tales about man’s best friend. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.