Author Archives: janishaag

I’ve decided that October will go downin my history as a Month of Infrastructure, the unsexy, can’t-see-it-but-if-it-breaks-you’rein-big-trouble repairs that had to happen, in home and work spaces, while trying tocalm my galloping heart as I channel my mother’s mantra when … Continue reading →

(for Martha Kight) Good heavens, we’re old enough to play Juliet’snurse, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you have, though, really, anyone over, say, 30 could do it,since Juliet’s supposed to be all of—what?—13, about to be 14 on Lammas … Continue reading →

(for Georgann) I had no idea you could send a packagefrom your corner of forever.I assume it was from you because I can’t think of who elsewould send me a noteless box of giftswith items that are so you: • … Continue reading →

(for my mother) Not that you were a gardener.You couldn’t keep half the plantsin the pots on your patio alive,forgetting to water them as you did. As a kid, I remember African violetsboldly purple in small planters onthe windowsill over … Continue reading →

(for the writers who come from all over the world to write with me online) How we chafed, stuck inside,reduced, we fumed, to communicatingonly with those in our living spaces and faces of others we were missinglocked in tiny rectangles … Continue reading →

(for Sue Lester) Though my best childhood buddy next doorgrew up with a rare, red, actual racing Ferrariprized by her father in their garage,I was nurtured to adulthood by a dadwho could tear apart a Chevy engineand put it back … Continue reading →

In response to the widespread web outages today,we encourage everyone to get outside and look at some birds.—National Audubon Society, 10/20/25 Why’re all those two-leggeds staring up at us?Have they lost their minds? Or have they lostthe little boxes they’re … Continue reading →

Malama ke kua’ana i ke kaikaina,ho’olohe ke kaikaina i ke kua’ana. The older sibling cares for the younger sibling,And the younger sibling listens to the older sibling. —Lāiana Kanoa-WongHawaiian Word of the Day, Hawaii News Now ••• Though, like all … Continue reading →

A tiny frogin the back yardpipes up daysafter rain has lefta puddle in the grass, hoarse, croaky,perhaps strugglingwith a… you know…in its wee throat, imitating, it seems to me,a persistent squeak of shoeor complaining floorboard— not unlike a human-sizedinflatable frog … Continue reading →

That remembers something old—Earth A word from what you are harvesting now—Gratitude One that a bird might say—Joy Give me a word that wants to be repeated—Kindness One that feels like an embrace—Hug Give me a word that feels likekindling … Continue reading →