Category Archives: Uncategorized

(for Nikki) We have tea’d in Guangzhou wherea young woman presented a carved boxwith the gift of chrysanthemum tea, where we watched little yellow flowersbloom in hothot water pouredfrom a heavy bronze pot. We have sky-high tea’d in Hong Kongatop … Continue reading →

(Lithia Park, Ashland, Oregon) Not until we rise after sittingon a bench by the pond fora good half hour talking, as we do, about so many thingsin our lives, does it strike methat we have been reflecting on the past … Continue reading →

I boarded a plane with you,nervous flyer, though you’d flownacross the world more timesthan I ever will, to go get the girl, deep in China,who became your daughter,waiting for the one she wouldcall Mama. That 7-year-old in the too-smallwheelchair, the … Continue reading →

The peach, sure, just looking at itlined up with its sisters in a peachychorus line, makes us salivate. But so the red hibiscus with itsopulent color is equally appetizingto the eye, both voluptuous creatures sendingcome-hither vibes into the airlike sirens … Continue reading →

This, the hot,which for many of usin these parts,means over 100.Degrees. Farenheit. And yeah, it’s a dry heat,but it’s still hotter thanhuman body tempsshould be, which meanswe start looking for waterin which to quell the hot. Which puts me in … Continue reading →

(In memory of the sprinklerking, our father, Roger, who artin heaven, born this day in 1930.) Did you hear my prayers, Daddy,as Donna knelt in supplication inmy front yard, her capable handsmanipulating the plastic bitsthat pass for sprinklers these days? … Continue reading →

Cut it open, reveal itspure heart, and you seein that dripping watermelon center how aptly it is named.And though its label promises“seedless,” you spot the pale seedlets dotting the interiorlike little buttons. No blackseeds, but, of course, it has to … Continue reading →

(for all of you) If I tell you that this window looked outon a place of extreme beauty,you might understand itssentiment: Forever thankfulAlways gratefulAbundantly blessed But if I tell you that this windowalso looked out on an isolatedpeninsula where people … Continue reading →

I rise as three planetsparade through the summer skyunder the ginormous Buck Moon creeping slowly up the southeasternhorizon, much as a young male deermight peer through the brush, The Anishinaabe call this onethe Berry Moon, while the Abenakithink of it … Continue reading →

You turned over your baby car to meso I could drive you on Thursdays—and me on all other days— a half century after you sat in anotherpassenger seat as I, with my learner’s permit,mangled the clutch on your Toyota. To … Continue reading →