Author Archives: janishaag

(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 →

Well, hot damn,if I’m not writing the final checkto the bank to make this old housemine for real. And all I can think of is,Did you ever think you’d see this?No, you did not, leaving the partyearly, as you did, … Continue reading →

How do we live so exposed,like a roll of film that, once opened,can no longer render an image? The bare scaffolding of a tree, itsspidery legs no longer encasedin earth—how does it survive? As we must—by sending a singlesturdy taproot … Continue reading →

I understand the need for some bucking upin the dark times, the impulse to light candleshalfway between the winter solstice andspring equinox— the tradition of renewal in Candlemasor Imbolc, as the seeds of spring beginto stir in the belly of … Continue reading →

Nightly we travel back and forthon a gentle ancestral river,swimming together in warm water—no rapids or rocks in sight—those who’ve come and gonelending me their insight. They do not speak, but theysmile, hum, wink, as if we sharesecrets, which, I … Continue reading →

(for Deb) As the first daffodilpops up its brave yellow headon the second-to-last day of January, the sign in her yard that she plantedthe first time still proclaims: • Black lives matter• Women’s rights are human rights• No human is … Continue reading →

(for Donna) Second from the left wall,separated from my sister’s by a sink,hers always so much tidier than mine. Lately, in emptying those drawers,she has pulled out the snarl of yarn bitsand hair ribbons and released them into their hereafter, … Continue reading →

We have the best conversations now that she’s dead. She’s become a much better listener. I talk to her when I am alone in her housesorting through her things. I try not to say,“Why do you have so many…?” Because … Continue reading →

Hey, Ma, you know who else diedthe same day as you? You’re gonna love this:Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, the woman incarcerated as a child at Manzanarduring World War II, the one who later wrote“Farewell to Manzanar,” her memoir that you gaveme … Continue reading →