Author Archives: janishaag

(for Donna) Because for a woman who retired aftera long career as a traveling physical therapistjust in time to do daily care for her firstgrandchild—something she very muchwanted to do— last year juggling that with coordinatingthe last months of our … Continue reading →

I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream.—Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brotherwhile at Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence ••• He considered “The Starry Night” a failure—too abstract, straying too far from nature,painted as he looked out … Continue reading →

I did not fall from grace: I leapt to freedom.—Ansel Elkins, “Autobiography of Eve” What if every fall is a leap to freedom?What if the cast is the cocoon underwhich a simple caterpillar gestates?What if, in every ending—as brutal,heartbreaking, unfair … Continue reading →

(for Sue Lester, BFF birthday gal) I cleaned off my desktop for you.Not my actual desktop, though thereare two of those in my office. The one I am sitting at is overfullwith all manner of stuff—three skinny tubes of lip … Continue reading →

(for Deb, my riverside walking buddy) Though the river has shrunk toa slender fall ribbon,exposing a narrow bandin the center of the channelpopulated with trees going aboutthe business of shedding, we walk the sandy traillooking for the telltale splashof sea … Continue reading →

The night before I never sawmost of my students again—only some of their framed facesvia a newfangled form of onlinecommunication— I watched a massive synchronizedcloud, thousands of starlingszooming as a collective wholeover a fall-harvested field, looking eastover the stubble into … Continue reading →

A woman, filled with the gladness of living,put the purse of her body on the tableand began to unpack it. “I have no need of this,” she said to no onein particular, though the fluffy black catwatched her, as he … Continue reading →

(for Dickie) I drive toward you under playfulfluffy clouds doing the sidestrokethrough rain-washed blue, thinking about the little ginkgoin my front yard that years ago wason its way to being a proper tree when someone accidentally broke it,and it became … Continue reading →

The poetry inside youis a chaliceand it is golden. —”Chalice” by Kathryn Hohlwein,May 18, 1930 – Nov. 18, 2024 ••• I sat in the poetry center waiting toread a few of your poems on the eveof the anniversary of your … Continue reading →

says the message on the screen,by clicking here, checking the box,identifying all the stoplights, because only we bipedal oneswith big brains can do so.What of the whales with their outsized hearts thesize of a Volkswagen bug,or our ape relatives who, … Continue reading →