Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today of all days—the day after another unspeakable actthat is spoken of over and over, joining the chorus of tragedieshumans visit upon each other,the killings and starvings, the bombings and beatings—we think of those in the towerswhen they fell, of … Continue reading →

(Sept. 11, two dozen years later…) So this honey bee lands smack dabin the center of a Mexican sunflowerand sets about doing its business— which is, of course, pollinating—when it is joined by another bee-likeinsect called the hover fly. One … Continue reading →

Mellifluous isn’t on one list, though it is on others.Because it rolls over the tongue so smoothly,it should be highly caloric. But tremulous is, which makes me quiver saying it, andluminous shining its bright self, as well asdiaphanous. All these … Continue reading →

As we assemble our star in the heavenswith every good deed, the smallestbits of kindness deposited like seeds along the paths of others, I findmyself considering how I mightfurnish that star before I get there, what color I’d like it … Continue reading →

As a kid, I used to feel my hopeful heartlift when I’d see the red flap hanging, the one Dad installed below our mailboxon its sturdy post across the street. That meant the mail lady had come,as we called our … Continue reading →

(Lake Tahoe, west shore) Red hammockunder tall Jeffrey pinesset against bluest blue, I eye a soaring specimenthat divides in twoforty feet up. Like us, one trunk,two offshoots,still reaching for sky—evenas we add morerings to our core, around ourincreasing middles,surprisingly strong … Continue reading →

As I type with my eyes closed, as I often do, I think of my favorite high school teacher who made me type and retype student reporters’ stories onto clean, half sheets of newsprint. In the mid-1970s I was the … Continue reading →

(Lake Tahoe, west shore,in memory of Margery Thompson) Five days after you die,we head to the Big Blue,the high mountain lakewhere all manner ofspirits live, and now,we imagine, you havejoined them. The Wa-She-Shu,the ancestral people,migrated here eachsummer from the hotCarson … Continue reading →

(for Rebecca) Once again, after the quietexplosion of death, the presence of the belovedpersists, as companion spirits do, lingering in the present tensenear those who cherish them. We cannot yet think in the “was,”as we sink into the after-space that … Continue reading →

(Lake Tahoe, west shore) On the second day at the lakea storm warning and propheticgraying skies, rimmed by a hintof light over the mountainsto the east. Sure enough, about mid-afternoon,I walk to the same spot overlookingthe beach, where yesterday beamedwith … Continue reading →