Author Archives: janishaag

It’s been decades since I lustedafter a particular pool. My sister and I,young synchronized swimmers, fell hard for the Neptune poolon our first visit to Hearst Castle,and dreamed of doing ballet legs in that aqua water surroundedby a pseudo-Greek temple. … Continue reading →

(at the Ocotillo Lodge, Palm Springs, California) Here, they negotiate the wicked thornsto perch in earth-toned camouflage on the spears arrowing out of the groundat the corner of our building. One moment I catch the zip of a tinywinged being, … Continue reading →

Indian Canyons, Palm Springs, California ••• The shaggy elders in this oasisbring to mind winterized buffaloon the Great Plains, their snow-coatedhides bulked up against the cold. But, more appropriately in this warmclimate, the dead fronds featheringtheir lower regions look to … Continue reading →

They used to say about informing onsomeone, about ratting someone out,the ten-cent piece being the costto make a call on a pay phone. Only now, only here, in this tram stationon a craggy mountain, it’s two quarters,which puzzles the young … Continue reading →

less than 100 feet northfrom the center of the walkwayleading to the art museumto a nearby grove of palms where her white skirtfamously flares high overthe heads of thousandswho come to see her in a desert town wherepeople have for … Continue reading →

Back in the pool shaped likea champagne cork at the beginning of a new yearin a place that’s usually summer-like in winter, though this year cooland rainy, the old souse of a desert imbibing the liquid candy, doingits best to … Continue reading →

(in memory of Captain Robert J. Schweitzer, U.S. Navy pilot, who served from 1950–1974) I did something today I haven’t done in years:I stood, as requested by a speaker at an event,and recited the pledge of allegiance (trying to remember … Continue reading →

(Palm Springs, California) Descending the steps into the big hot poolat the mid-mod condo in the winter-chilly desert, I remember the baptism of these healing waterstwo years ago, entering fevered and shivering, only to have all symptoms of the Big … Continue reading →

(driving south on Highway 99, New Year’s Day 2026) I’m at the wheel, he’s riding shotgun,shooting through the windshieldat the unfolding skyshow— from swift-moving gray cloudsraining tiny pearl-sized dropswith tails wiggling up the glass like overeager tadpoles,then, swithin a couple … Continue reading →

Our very life here depends directly on continuous acts of beginning.—John O’Donohue It’s an invitation, an opening,like so many that have been offered,a portal into, yes, the uncharted, but when has there ever been a beginningthat did not require a … Continue reading →