Introduction to Hero Island

Apples taste sweeter on Hero Island. That mockingbird perched on the branch of a dogwood sings sweeter, too. The sun sets slow behind the mountains, and if you sit out on the cabin porch long enough, more likely than not you’ll be treated to the sight of a family of deer easing by “in snorting conversation.”

On Hero Island, everything and everybody work and play together in loving, peaceful harmony, the way life was meant to be. Why, you can even make friends with that skunk digging his nose “deep into the rich topsoil,” provided you respect him the way he respects you.

There’s no fancy modern technology on Hero Island. A Craftsman’s Farm is what Gustav Stickley called the place. People use only what they need, and what they need they make by hand, the way our grandfathers did.

You should see Stickley’s old bent arm Morris chair:
no applied ornamentation
no nails or screws just oaken pegs
natural joints of mortise and tenon
sturdy fine grained quarter-sawn oak
utility and elegance in simple form

On Hero Island you’ll be in the best of company. You’ll be pleased to know that one of your neighbors, Harold Tucker, traces his lineage all the way back to Africa. an ageless man of ninety massive delicate hands from a lifework in masonry fingers that play the violin he loves hands that built his warm brick home as graceful and welcoming as Tuck himself Who in the world ever came up with the idea that one man can own another? Can’t they see that all of us belong to the land.

They say Mother Teresa resided here a while. Abraham Lincoln, too. And Albert Einstein fit right in. When someone knocked on his door one day and asked him to join a rally for world federation, Einstein said, “I believe it is my duty to be there.”

The way folks on Hero Island learned to get along was by observing “the magic power of the earth.” After all, how can we doubt ourselves when The daffodil that droops in summer decorates the spring There’s a feeling of contentment here that you won’t find any place else on earth. Like the glider on the cabin porch, everything on Hero Island “swings gently and true.”

Best of all, you can always count on looking up and finding “our own loyal moon above.”

At a time when many Americans have become cynical about humanity, a newly collected book of poetry written by “Mr. Renaissance Man” offers fresh hope that natural beauty and human goodness will endure forever.

Author Stephen B. Wiley is a lawyer, poet, former State Senator, supporter of the arts, political and education reformer, civil rights advocate, community builder, and fund-raiser extraordinaire. Wiley believes mankind is enriched whenever one person who cares asserts themselves.

The author describes Hero Island as an “accessible account of experiences and insights – a first book of poetry, reflecting the experiences of the author and his learning along the way. A lot of poetry is pretty murky. My poems are accessible because the words are crafted to say precisely what I mean without obscuring or mystifying.”

Life is a marvelous journey, come experience its authentic beauty, come to Hero Island.