Category Archives: Uncategorized

Before I start writing,I step outside to take a sipof spring, well aware of the poetic cliché,the unearned enthusiasmas if we’ve just weathered the longest winter of our lives,a series of unenduringly,unending gray days. But some of us have,I think, … Continue reading →

Spring now in both hemispheres—equinox meaning equal night—we northerners spring-ing, the southerners fall-ing, thoughin truth, it’s only roughly equal.Yet, symmetrically on these twice yearly occasions, the sun risesdue east and sets due west, whichis why you’ll find me searching the … Continue reading →

I do not have the heart to chaseafter this earlybird that zoomsinto the house through the openback door—because it’s far too fairout there to keep it closed. I hear him buzzing the kitchen,though I don’t see him till I’m sittingat … Continue reading →

And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of … Continue reading →

(for Cliff) On the 23rd anniversary of your last day on EarthI walk through one of the prettiest parks in town,the cemetery where we used to walk Buddy,where I long imagined I would put you some day. It didn’t turn … Continue reading →

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?—Mary Oliver ••• I see you there, taking shallow breaths,as though your lungs can’t expandto contain the wholeness of you. But I think they can. It’s your life, they’re … Continue reading →

that he is not doing well,Diego, thinning and sneezing,on the decline comparedto a year ago— yet he still hops up onthe kitchen counter andplops himself in the sink,watching the goings on of a sleepy house aftermidnight, watchkittysurveying the kingdom.Lately he … Continue reading →

(for Georgann) You took me the first timewhere we chuckled at the arrayof clever gift items—an only-in-Seattle thing— and, since shopping was oneof our happiest outings (oftenfalling into the just looking sphere),I cannot go through Sea-Tac without stopping at Fireworks,imagining … Continue reading →

It is a pact within a sacred partnership: If you lose the way home, I will come for you. If I lose my way, you will come for me. If we are both lost, someone must find a way to … Continue reading →

There are areas far out at sea whereit rains a great deal. Camus saidit rained so hard even the sea was wet. —Jim Harrison, from “The Times Atlas” in “The Theory and Practice of Rivers” ••• Most of us cannot … Continue reading →