Author Archives: janishaag

she scribbled on a yellow pad in her lap,sitting in my city, leading a workshopof tentative writers, most of themunsure about calling themselves writers. A writer is someone who writes,she’d declared long before, creatingthe encouraging method she left us,along with … Continue reading →

with four Santa-sized bags around him,khaki bits winking out of mostly dirt brownlumps, his eyes crinkled even in shade as though the sun shines perpetually in them,I offer eight granola bars and a bag of garlicnaan, oval hunks of thick … Continue reading →

Gotta guy on a polein my backyard at 8 a.m.—not something that happensevery day, especially on a brisk almost-winter morning like this one,but he’s giving it the oldcollege try, tinkering with wires,trying to speed up myinternet, which guys likehim have … Continue reading →

for Georgann, of course How many times did you have to forgive me?How many times did I have to forgive myselffor my judgmental thoughts, for the minorirritations I must have conveyed to you?Far too many, I think, now that you’re … Continue reading →

Oh, little teapots(yes, short and stout)I broke one’s handleand the other’s spout and put a hole in thewhite one’s round bottom—two teapots in two days,kaput, thanks to myclumsy fingers. And the search began(online, of course) forthe largest teapot thatI could … Continue reading →

Waking in the night,I listen for the predicted rain, a whopperof a deluge, maybe an inch of rain,wicked wind, a true winter stormbefore the season officially lands. But each time I come to consciousness,shift a cat, wait, I hear no … Continue reading →

Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.― Meister Eckhart My favorite students to teach, those summermornings at the high school pool, werethe Beginners. A couple levels up from Non-Swimmers, still tentative, some reluctantto put their faces in the … Continue reading →

This nightgo outside to find yourselfcaught in the spotlight of ouronly natural satellite,inhale yourself illumined in lightreflected by our star, as Da Vinci’swild imagination postulated500 years ago. The full moon embraced in the armsof the crescent, he said, isearthshine. If … Continue reading →

Back in business at lastfor the Christmas singunder the Capitol dome, Mom and the Sweet Adelinesharmonize in Santa hatsand sparkly tops, sendingto the top of the rotundasounds of the season: Mary, did you know that your baby boyWould one day … Continue reading →

Once you step in, begin to walk,time dissolves, something takes you from your placein the world—what you imagine your place to be— into a space of evaporated time,of disappeared place,barely embodied, only your feettreading the circuitouspath in, shedding what is … Continue reading →