Category Archives: Uncategorized

I stand at my kitchen counter,two bags of them open-mouthedbefore me, ones that I took to my mother,who has returned them to mesaying, I can’t shell them. I can’t seethe shells from the nuts. I endup biting shells, which, given … Continue reading →

I like the way Brits sayhalf-four, that time between hoursto signal the midpoint,a sense of partly accomplishedand hope for what is to come. Today I am half-65,halfway to my next birthday—for many of my adult yearsnot a date I marked, … Continue reading →

You know how sometimes youmake something harder thanit has to be, which can feel like trying toshovel packed snow hardenedinto a giant ice cube? Or, today, like futzing witha simple poem to somehowforce it to sing when all the damn … Continue reading →

Keep a sharp eye out—it’s your the last chance to seethe Claw in action for the season— leaf season, that is, which in my cityruns from November to the end of January, though some of the most stubbornsycamore leaves will … Continue reading →

Do not disturb says the grass green signsprouting from bladesof a similar color, tiny grass is dreaming And if you peer closely,squint a bit, you mightsee tiny eyelids closed on those leaves of grass,infinitesimal lashesfluttering in sleep, growing as they … Continue reading →

It is no small thing to begranted this time, to walk into a long-ago classroom alivein your mind, slide onto a hard wooden chair attached toa round-bottomed desk, open the Formica’d lid, and pull outa nearly full notebook of swollen … Continue reading →

Everything— every breath, every moleculeof sunshine, the deluge that caught youyesterday, the morsel of gladnessin sharing a smile with a dear one,that sharp taste of sweetnessdown to the unfathomable weightof yet another sorrow— none of it will come again. Not … Continue reading →

(For R.D. Schmidt, in memory of C.W. Schmidt) You cannot take the measure of a manfrom his ruler, the one that restedin the dark of a slender desk draweruntil it was called into service, then brought into squinty office lightby … Continue reading →

(for birthday gal Shelley Burns) It’s over 60 degrees on the 23rd dayof this new year as freezing friendsin the east express envy and a little disbelief about Northern Californiaspringlike conditions after (for us)too many gray days and whomping rain. … Continue reading →

Sometimes the gods of auto-correctare your friend, like today,as my fingers attempt to type— in case you haven’t heard— instead, before my fuzzy eyesthe editors behind the scenesrecast it as— in case you haven’t heart— which, of course, causes a … Continue reading →