Author Archives: janishaag

(for Dick) Some burst like pale pink fireworks so early,and I pull the car over to walk up a newly greening slope and admire them up close,tiny gems bobbing against a gray sky. The first blossoms surprise me every year. … Continue reading →

(for Dick Schmidt, on his birthday) Because, the day before he turns 82,he pulls himself out of a warm bedsooner than he’d like to come toyour house and pick up the lone box that remains ofyour late mother’s many, manyboxes … Continue reading →

On the church steps on a cold clear morningthree days before St. Valentine’s Daythere he was in the deep shade,a slender young man with a days-old beardand only a small towel around his shoulders. Honey, whispered the little red-haired angelwho … Continue reading →

After we leave for the night— after we have spent hours pulling dustybooks off shelves, and finding photos tuckedinto unexpected crevices, after tossingpaper, paper, and more paper, setting asideoffice supplies and semi-precious stones(so many crystals!), more books, more records,tapes (cassette … Continue reading →

How is it that my little sister is a grandma,and her husband (that cute blonde guy whoplayed baritone sax in the college night band)is a grandpa? And that they made a Lauren, and Lauren(with Gerald) made a Henry (and now … Continue reading →

The human heart beats 100,000 times a day,40 million times a year, and up to3 billion times in an average lifetime. Butterfly hearts beat hundreds of thousandsof times a day, and up to 1 billion timesin their abrupt lifetimes. But … Continue reading →

I cannot tie my shoes,which Mrs. Shaw tells allthe mommies that wekindergarteners in her classmust be able to do. But I can read “The Cat in the Hat”all the way throughall by myself, and I can write mywhole name:Janis Linn … Continue reading →

Outside in the dark,before I turn on the lightinside the garage, I stop in the chill,listen to them chatter overhead,geese on the move, a large flock, not just a honkhere or there, but the aviancall and response, a chorus of … Continue reading →

(for the California Northstate University medical students, class of 2025) I set containers of gummy Xs and Osmixed with jellybean heartson the tables where you will curlover new notebooks and fresh pens,you soon-to-be doctorswriting your art out. “It’s all about … Continue reading →

When I’m told to hum in a seaof hummers, I think first of the birdswhose wings thrum the air,of the delight when one flies intomy airspace and hovers like aniridescent helicopter, rotorswhirring, before it dashes off. And now, in this … Continue reading →