Author Archives: janishaag

on the first day of the last month,we find ourselves walking ona carpet of golds—some burnished with smudges of cinnamon—but mostlyginkgo leaves the color of new lemons,a startling contrast to the wet road. We are drawn to put our feet … Continue reading →

for Jeannine In an oak grove where we used to campas Girl Scouts, several decades later a youngBoy Scout outlined a labyrinth behindthe church where we’d attend Girl ScoutSundays and my sister eventually married, and all that came rushing back … Continue reading →

Oh, there should be a waltz playingbehind this slow reveal—the Blue Danube or a delicate Chopin piano tune—asthe moonshadow lowers at an oblique angle, exposing the tiny blue dot seeminglyalone in the inkiness of space: our home planet beamed back … Continue reading →

(the origin of a word and the historical development of its meaning) Though I don’t play, I loveto peruse lists of new Scrabble wordsthat have entered the game:hangryonesiesporkhorchataskeezy which make me smile, but then the mind twists overgrawlixwhich I should … Continue reading →

in memory of Charles Schulz on his 100th birthday Never thought I’d meet and interview him,let alone have a hot dog with him in theWarm Puppy Café, but as long as I live, I’ll cherish the rideon the back of … Continue reading →

How good it feels to empty a spacethat stored my stuff for far too long—a good seven years—for which I paidfor far too long, really a good-sizedwalk-in closet a mile and a halffrom home. But Dick and I cleared out … Continue reading →

(not for the squeamish) An hour before leaving for my family’sThanksgiving gathering at my sisterand brother-in-law’s house, I heardDiego’s hunting trill and wentto investigate. Sure enough, the bigdumb orange boy cat had the big ratcornered behind two boxes I’dmoved to … Continue reading →

thankful I am—moreso every yearI live on the planet—that I can rise on a pearly day of gratitude to walkwith thousands, whose every step benefits those who hunger, fromthose of us who generally do not, who will turn to tables … Continue reading →

To me, fair friend, you can never be old,For as you were as first your eye I eyed…—from Sonnet 104, William Shakespeare Because your eyes are the same as those ofthe 8-year-old next door, whose neighborhoodnext to a lake, amid … Continue reading →

Did I learn the word from Marty Weisinger,my father’s Army buddy who traveled 400 miles ages ago to introduce my sister and me to the onlyJewish deli in Sacramento, to experience giant kosher pickles and pastrami for the first time?Or … Continue reading →