Category Archives: Uncategorized

Did I ignore the wordsstarting to ticker tapetheir way across my brain,imagining that I couldcollect them later? When, in fact, they would rollaway like spilled jellybeans, and,needing to walk onto the next thingand the next, and the next,I could not … Continue reading →

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.—Mary Oliver This is my work in the world—walking where spring has greenedthe many waist-high grasses and thickened the bracken andsent up the tall spiky milk thistleand the propeller-like wild radish. … Continue reading →

Needing the waterbut far from the ocean,I take myself to the river closest to me,the same one that turns into a lakeby the house where I grew up,then is strained through the teethof a great dam and released to flow40 … Continue reading →

(for Dickie) Forgive me as I take againthe sacrament of avocado, which I know you finddistasteful, its texture lining your mouth likemushy wax. Even I object to an unripespecimen’s chalky taste, and if they go bad, theygo bad, baby. So … Continue reading →

Deep pink ones pop like over-inflated balloonsall over my front yard, as they do everywhere these days of floral abundance springing into action.I did not plant each geranium—my next-door garden goddess did from sprigs of her own plants—though the newbies … Continue reading →

(for Mom and Ashley, with love) The same Monday afternoon I cruiseplants in a nursery, I walk by a largeheart sculpture on an outside wall,and think, Nice, about to walk on. But something stops me, and Ibackstep to peer closely, … Continue reading →

I am terrible at games,even word games, which you’d think,wordy as I am, I’d cruise through like a Sunday spin over smooth road.Not so much, which makes no differenceto me until I take up a challenge to convene quartets of … Continue reading →

We whisper to the one setting off,one foot, then the other, whether into the labyrinththat will take them to the center or into the greater world.We infuse them with a bit of the holy that we all carry,on this walk … Continue reading →

(for Maxi) I’m sorry, dude, that I tried to pick you upand put you in the bathroom so a tall womanwith clippers could come give you a pedicure. And you cleverly squished out the doorthat I tried to close and … Continue reading →

The old one lies dead nearby,a 50-foot limp gray snake,all the air having left its bodyafter years in the back yard. I have not been able to remove it.What do you do with a hosepierced dozens of times by the … Continue reading →