Author Archives: janishaag

A woman online wrote about her dog,but it strikes me that Chance, that old trickster, is our lifelong dance partner, from oursmallest selves wiggling to music as toddlers to our oldest incarnations learning to maneuverwith a cane, looking down as … Continue reading →

(Passiflora incarnata) Listen: All the flowersyou’d hoped to see on yourfavorite tropical island have likely been blownto smithereens by a hurricane,and now is not the time to make a nuisance ofyourself as a visitor.But honey, take a gander at the … Continue reading →

I know it’s silly to get all squishy aboutelectric red tomatoes hanging like tiny festive lanterns from the vines, butlook at ’em glowing as if lit from within, which they might well be. And now,in late September, nearing what has … Continue reading →

Sometimes you give in to the tears,to the need to take to the bed,maybe weep there, or sleep. But if you can, the little voice nudges,get up. The cat needs feeding,and if there’s no cat, put out some water for … Continue reading →

(for Laura Martin and Chris Musci) Furry yin and yang soulssnuggled into each other,so inseparable that onlyyou two could discernwhere one cat stoppedand the other started. The pair of black and whitehapa cats (“half” in Hawaiian)—the big fella delivered unto … Continue reading →

(a garden or part of a garden devoted to roses) Mine consists of three straggly bushesstubbornly rooted by the backyard fence. Not the ones Mrs. Young planted here thatwe inherited after we bought her house— those died, one by one, … Continue reading →

You are such an interesting conversation. You belong here.—Pádraig Ó Tuama, from “How to Be Alone” ••• “Listen,” I say to you more often than I care to admit,“You are not going to believe this.” And then I unspool some … Continue reading →

“Such a pretty day”—complimenting those in chargeof the acutely blue skyand end-of-summer leavesthat have not yet begun to turn, though some have fallen hereand there, a sign of what’s to come.Perhaps, like the squirrels, I’m storingup this ideal walking weather … Continue reading →

Sunnyside restaurant, Tahoe City, Lake Tahoe As we eat on the deck above the lakefor the last time, weeks beforethe restaurant will shutter for good, beyond the blue, the mountains blushas the sun lowers its curtain, thenpurple and darken into … Continue reading →

Babe, you hiked two milesover crunchy granite trailsat 6,200 feet, far aboveour usual sea level walks, good sport that you are,knowing that I wanted to doa little explore around thismountain lake we love. And later, you sacked outon the bed … Continue reading →