Category Archives: Uncategorized

The story goes that when Rose’sGreat Aunt Emily and family immigrated from Italy, Emily (who was considered“wild” in her youth) got a tattoo on her arm proclaiming “America.”Emily’s niece Alma inherited the sax and kept it, thinking that her daughterRose … Continue reading →

What do you remember about that day,forty-two years ago, when you faced each other and promised what you could not possiblyknow to promise? And yet you kept those promises and added to them, pebble by pebble,along the path of what … Continue reading →

(Latin: an object of wonder) •••And the miracles say, “We were here the whole time.We stood right in front of you, and you stepped around us.”—Barney Ogden, from “Confession”••• We put ourselves in your path all the time,sure, sometimes disguised … Continue reading →

This is me, every fall,when summer has not yetgiven up, and neither have I,oblivious to the complaintsof folks eager for the cool, the leaf fall, the smokydusks of autumn. Me,I’m cheering for these balmy nights when Istill tiptoe into the … Continue reading →

When you are absorbed in an online lectureby a famous poet, and your own poem starts coming?The famous poet is talking about the voice of a poem,and here’s the interrupting voice of one that wants to be. And you say … Continue reading →

The once-upon-a-time, the long-ago-but-not-forgotten.The one who taught me how to kiss and sing harmony to his melodyas he played the guitar. The one who really taught me how to kissand quite a bit more, and whose young man muskiness lingeredin … Continue reading →

Not what you’d call light reading,but gorgeous, weighty, late 1800sleather volumes, on a shelfin the guest bath where the tubused to be. Balzac’s complete works on one side,Bulwer-Lytton’s novels on the other,with stacks of old magazineson a bottom shelf, prominent … Continue reading →

As I’m filling out the information onlinefor the return of a blouse I have apparentlypurchased twice, of course, having no memory of doing so,you’re at my shoulder: “Jan, can youreturn this for me?” You were forever buying things online—often cute … Continue reading →

When I reach deep into the bagI carry every day, the one my mother would have called a purseand my grandmother a “pockabook,” my fingers touch the round, flat, coldof dimes and pennies and nickels, with the occasional quarter, fallen … Continue reading →

Four months ago the arborist knocked on my door,here to eyeball the long locks of foliage out back, especially the leafy growth swaddling the trapeze-likelines swooping from tall electric poles to house. He had recommendations—which I seconded—adding that tree trimmers … Continue reading →