Category Archives: Uncategorized

The first all-day rainy day calls fordonning the plum rain boots as you head out for afternoon errands,reminding yourself how to drive on slick streets, to come to carefuland complete stops before proceeding. Though you have things to do, you … Continue reading →

We are all hurling through space on a rock,and we’re all going to die. You would thinkwe could be holding hands and singing.—John Bradshaw ••• Give me your hand. Here’s mine.Whatever we think makes us differentis not as important as … Continue reading →

Though the weather has notchilled enough to holler Soup!,on November’s first Sunday night, after chopping up the Holy Trinityof Soup, as my friend Lisa taught me—celery, carrots and onion— I dig out the new big pot, locatethe olive oil and … Continue reading →

Now that time has fallen backan hour, I drive down L Streetshaking my head at the treesstill swathed in green, the leavesstuck tight to the precise spotswhere they were born. In other parts of this hemisphere,their brethren have already taken … Continue reading →

I love me some homophones, thoughnot the kind at home that once pluggedinto the wall, and not bipedal primates, but words that sound the samebut are spelled differently,each unique in meaning, which creates problems for folksboth familiar with and new … Continue reading →

Write good poems and let go of them. Publish them, read them, go on writing.—Natalie Goldberg, from “Writing Down the Bones” ••• Buddhist monks train for years to createintricate mandalas of colorful sand,spending days of meditative work to painstakingly build … Continue reading →

Everyone needs a bit of kindnessto unwrap and bite into, and someoneonce said that if they ask, it shall be given,so I give chocolate to the inflatable T-Rex appearing at my door, along with six skeletons,assorted princesses and ninjas, and … Continue reading →

It may seem ghoulish to someto walk my neighborhood cemeterythe day before the day beforethe day of the dead, but I like to pay my respectsto the souls of the ones buriedand interred here as I walk,trying to name all … Continue reading →

“The last wall of the fort is gone.”—Dick Schmidt, retired Bee photographer, about the demolition ofThe Sacramento Bee building, 21st and Q streets, Oct. 29, 2025 ••• (For Dick Schmidt and those who spent their careers committing acts of journalism … Continue reading →

Root your feet in river soilleft by last winter’s rising,as the languid waterslaze in autumn torporbefore what’s sureto fall again. Look across the liquid swath—today muddy, tomorrow cobalt—flowing south, and think ofwhere it begins, 222 milesnorth of two cities thatbear … Continue reading →