Category Archives: Uncategorized

These long nights keeping watch,standing vigil, you carry with youa kind of mantra—not much longer— counting the hours till dawn,peering out the window for the firstsuggestion of morning that signals relief in the form of someone whowill arrive with gentle … Continue reading →

(for my grandmother, Anna Marie Nyberg Haag) My father used to say,“Write when you get work,”long before my sister and I were old enoughto do so. It took yearsbefore I realized that to our father, raised as he wasduring the … Continue reading →

Sometimes, love looks like small things.—Former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith Like bringing the half gallon of milk,though he didn’t ask for it becauseyou knew he’d otherwise have to dampentomorrow’s cereal with water. Like him emailing the photos he … Continue reading →

How rivers and stones are foreverin allegiance with gravitywhile we ourselves dream of rising. —Mary Oliver ••• If I must pledge,let me do so while standing,not with hand over heart, but outside amid the greening,gawking again at the show-offhollyhocks rising … Continue reading →

The kids whose house it now ishave no idea how the littlehummingbird got inside. Perhaps it flew in throughopen doors or screenless windowsamid all the renovation transforming our mother’sold place into theirs. Maybeflitting into the hole in the eaves that … Continue reading →

On our first Mother’s Daywithout her, her son-in-lawand her grandson unbucketedtwo volunteer oaks from anotherback yard, planting them in a far cornerof the yard that was hers, wheremy favorite oak once leaned, armsextended, graceful as a dancer, whose woody lap … Continue reading →

Maybe it’s her chair space you’re holding,the one she sat in at the table,or the weary recliner that held herwhen you could not. Her space in the world seems to havevanished, as she seems to havedrifted into the ether, but … Continue reading →

He says upon waking, looking outsideto behold the day’s first light on morning waves, soft clouds losingtheir blush as the sun takes over, revealing a ruler-straight horizonseparating the lightest sky blue from the sea’s definitive marine bluemorphing into near shore … Continue reading →

She’s the Hawaiian rainbow goddess,and when she makes an appearance,we take notice, tipped off by soft drops of rain freckling our faces.Simultaneously, we turn away fromthe sun to watch this messenger of the gods unfurl her full-spectrummessage—blessings of hope and … Continue reading →

(for Donna Just in Lawai, Kauai) Your last day here, mid-afternoon,we go down to the flat lava rocksat low tide, under a hiding andseeking sun. In nearshore waves we look for periscoping headsrising to take a breath, inflatethe huge lungs … Continue reading →