Author Archives: janishaag

Penmanship was once a status symbol—the nicer the hand, the greater one’seducation, wealth, privilege. And neat cursive handwriting becamewhat every teacher demanded of pupils—the feminine slant or the upright masculine— prompting the torment of many a student,including my left-handed father, … Continue reading →

(for Clifford, who married me 42 years ago today) You’d boil hops on the stove in a huge stew potof your grandmother’s, one big enough tobathe a baby in, she used to say, and we’d laugh, imagining your 6-foot-4 selfbaby-sized, … Continue reading →

(in memory of Pat Schneider) I did not expect her to drop in this morning,did not expect her to squeal with little-girl glee when her name was invoked through the ether.But there she is, her eyes doing their happy dance … Continue reading →

Beaming into the backyard like the big old spotlightyou are, missing for almost a fortnight, though,of course, it wasn’t your fault, you constant star. But like cats who get themselves shut intosomeone’s shed for days, we’ve been searchingfor you, walked … Continue reading →

All over the sidewalks,in the gutters,doing their deciduous danceinto winter in theseparts of our citifiedwoods, finally crimsonedby mid-December,like so many rose petalsthrown at our feetwe can’t help scuffthrough them—or stop,bend and peer attheir starry selves,from browning bananayellow to pumpkin-esqueto deepest … Continue reading →

(Or why social media can be your friend) Just when I can barely hold your facesin my fading brain, much less your voices, I am reminded by the little devicethat on this day, nine years ago, you two lay on … Continue reading →

As the old saying goes,Everybody talks about the weather,but nobody does anything about it. I am doing something about it.I am in the car, driving toward the sun,feeling a little like Icarus, though I doubt I will get anywhere close … Continue reading →

Yes, it arrives every winter.And can, as it is doing now, hang aroundfor weeks. So I, a native of the long, slenderGolden State, who has spent most of my lifein the northern part of the great Central Valley,should be well … Continue reading →

Dearest Miss D.,I hope that you have awell-deserved placein the balcony where you can look down uponscads of us mere mortalswho hold your wordsin the highest esteem, shy as you were aboutpublishing in your day.I have fat books ofyour poems … Continue reading →

Every year, as this tree outside thescience building on the universitycampus I still think of as mine releases its gold bounty, I makea mini pilgrimage to stand beneath itand wonder who comes with what implement and makes perfect circlesaround the … Continue reading →