Category Archives: Uncategorized

Plant something, suggests a wiser mindthan mine. Which I’ve been doing.Literally. And when the noise of cruelty and oppression,of war and meanness vibrates through melike a tuning fork, I go to the nursery. As if I need more plants.Bring them … Continue reading →

Bee daisy, too,bee butterfly bush,though the fragrant purple spears haveyet to make theirappearance. All kinds of bees—fat fuzzy ones,lithe black ones, bee-like hoverflies withtheir three pairs of commastattooed on their backs— all pollinators seducedby the come-hitherblossoms begging for a fly-by. … Continue reading →

The companion spirit who knows me bestdrops in at the oddest times, often witha can’t-miss-this message that might as well be a burning bush. Drivingdown H Street toward home, I see onthe rear end of a Toyota pickup: TELUWHT Reading … Continue reading →

becomes home, no matter how long we lived there,long enough for some to set down slender tendrils of roots or far longer so as to embed ourselves in the earth,whether welcoming loam for growing things or hardpan or desert or … Continue reading →

Riding the elevator downto the basement, the universitymusic professor warns that it mightfeel a little creepy down there. Though I spent time with bandsand percussion instruments in thisbuilding more than a half century ago,I’ve not been in its bowels. But … Continue reading →

but it’s still a chair,reads the sign tapedto one of the blue ones at the poetry center,the message a poem itself,though maybe more a koan, which I doubt someonemeant it to be, thoughyou never know— poetry found everywhere,after all, especiallyduring … Continue reading →

Words aren’t coming—no big dealif you write or not, doesn’t matteron this blustery, rainy day. And then something nudges youto stuff your stubborn feet into purplerubber boots, don the rain jacket and hat, consider, then discard,the idea of umbrella as … Continue reading →

We sometimes think that stunningend-of-day skies happen onlyat the edges of the Earth, ideally standing on a spit of landor sand by the ocean, wheresome unseen hands watercolor the heavens. But then we stepoutside wherever we happen to be,take in … Continue reading →

We must admit there will be music despite everything.—poet Jack Gilbert from “A Brief for the Defense” In my case, the sharp sounds of mallets hitting metal,practicing the bells solo to “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which I haven’t performed in … Continue reading →

Now that I’m officially one of the young-old,as one of my old-old friends has dubbed me, I have been made aware that I have a fondnessfor certain citizens of gardens that are, apparently to many, old lady plants. They seemto … Continue reading →