Author Archives: janishaag

So the BF and I were having a conversation the other day—she tucked into yet another hospital bed and me sitting on the foot of that bed—about a book she wants to write. “It’s about being there,” she said, making … Continue reading →

I should say here that while I consider myself a reasonably “serious” poet, I play with poetry a lot. I think of the goofy, not-so-serious ones that I write as “pomes.” Dorothy Parker called hers “doggerel.”  These are the snippets … Continue reading →

Last Friday, July 15, would have been the 94th birthday of one of my dearest dead loved ones. I knew this as I sat in a big chair in the Kaiser chemo suite with my friend Judy Parke, who was … Continue reading →

One morning at the AWA training in Alamo, I woke up with this in my head: Throw out the bad and keep the rest. In the heart of the good lies the very best. I don’t usually dream in rhyme … Continue reading →

It is almost 10 p.m., and I’m sitting outside an old carriage house in Alamo, Calif., typing away on my computer. I can access the wi-fi out here, and a very friendly pale orange kitty named Rusty (he’s faded rust) … Continue reading →

In the last post, “New poems,” I included a poem that I’ve put up on the blog before. Those with sharp eyes might note that this is a revision of that earlier poem. If you click onto the blog itself, … Continue reading →

I thought I might put up a few of my new poems written at the recent conference I attended. I’ll offer one here, and if you click through to the blog itself, look across the top of the page, click … Continue reading →

So the thing is… (one of my favorite prompts!) …this week I’m attending The Healing Art of Writing conference in San Rafael—actually on the park-like campus of Dominican University—with my friend and AWA facilitator Terri Wolf, living the pseudo college … Continue reading →

In the words of the immortal Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: “You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you … Continue reading →

… the woman in line behind me at Subway said today. I turned and looked at her, wondering what had marked me. I didn’t know her; we had not spoken. I did not sport ink-stained fingers (I love that Ralph … Continue reading →