Author Archives: janishaag

The ones who stand there in ungodly weather—the rain, the sleet, the snow of postal delivery folk, yes, but also amid the godawful heat and fumes of all manner of heavy machinery spitting dirt and gravel and sand and Lord … Continue reading →

If we could write one for her,we might reach for a bouncybeat, a major chord progression, though in a slightly sultry tone,because hers is the key signatureof joy. We could say that we have gathered to listen, to putour hands … Continue reading →

Can’t get enough I love yous,sincerely delivered from oneswe adore, especially fromchildren or spouses,dear friends, or the pawand maybe a lick froma favorite four-footed one. Thanks is always nice, too,and an I’m sorry from onewho had a thoughtless momentdoes wonders. … Continue reading →

After a few more hours pulling bookstopped with miniature dust bunnies offher shelves and stuffing garbage bags full ofdecades-old papersmagazinearticlesjournalsand lugging them to the driveway to heft intomy trunk a couple hours after sunset, I realize thatthey are too hefty. … Continue reading →

Whaddya mean, you didn’t know you were looking?Of course, you’ve been looking. All your life you’vebeen looking. It’s in freepin’ neon, for heaven’s sake.Or someone’s sake. Maybe yours. How should I know what it means? Angels don’tknow everything. It’s your … Continue reading →

The holy disaster is a beckoning. Come.Enter the fire of love and let it remake youagain and again. —Mirabai Starr I’m not looking for the sacred,the holy, but it finds me unaware,which is why, later, it occurs to me that … Continue reading →

(ah-sin-duh-tin): The omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence. (or why I love the word-a-day gems that arrive in my in-box) ••• I learned the word long ago from a wicked goodgrammar teacher in college who … Continue reading →

I will hold to my heart the sight of a young manwith a garden hose on his late grandmother’s patio, aiming a clear stream of water at his late grandfather’sski boat, which, ages ago, he drove across the lake we … Continue reading →

The term for a series of regular curvesin a river’s channel is a meander, created when a river erodes the outer bankand deposits sediment on the inner bank, a natural building up and breaking down,defining the edges of ricefieldswheatfields tomatofieldsalfalfafieldsalmondorchardswalnutorchardspearorchardspeachorchards, … Continue reading →

While you are trying to work, by which, I mean type at a computerbecause the poem is coming, and your mews has the idea that she needsto be Right There, Right Now, which she never used to insist upon. For … Continue reading →