Category Archives: Uncategorized

(In memory of Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii,1838–1917, on the 133rd anniversary ofthe overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom) ••• It is not the first time that the countryI think of as mine has muscled its wayinto another and bent unwillingpeople to … Continue reading →

I’m pretty sure the headline meantthe body, with an image of a womanwith leg in the air, actuallystretching. But my mind went to trees lengtheningtheir long spines toward the light,bending as necessary, or perhapsby desire, and I thought again how … Continue reading →

Though some folks with a wickedsense of humor decided to nametheir stretch of Arizona desert Nothing, and though today on someone’shumorous calendar has been dubbedNothing Day, I can’t designate even one of the increasingly fewer daysthat lie before me as … Continue reading →

Seven years after,I can’t count how manytimes I look at you in a moment of fleetingirritation, when the blueof your eyes shimmers just so, as it did whenthey blinked openthe day I lost you, and you returnedthanks to the help … Continue reading →

There’ll be a sign. Of course, there’ll be a sign.It’ll be subtle, but it will find you if you open your heart and let the wind blow through.Hope can look like winter-bare trees showing tiny bumps of buds-to-be, or a … Continue reading →

(for Dick Schmidt, aka Uncle Duck,in honor of National Rubber Ducky Day) When, as little kids, your niece and nephewchristened you Uncle Duck, giggling overthe clever wordplay, you were stuck. Forever after, ducks appeared for birthdaysand Christmases, many of them … Continue reading →

It never had a formal namescripted across its stern.It was just “the boat,”or, since his demise,“Dad’s boat,” though it was Mom’s color,turquoise across the broadbow and interior with whiteundercarriage, late ’60s Silverline Rambler—which shared the garagewith the turquoise Ramblerstation wagon— … Continue reading →

Doesn’t have to be much,just a few lines, I often tell people tryingto write one. Or in the words of a poetI greatly admire, It doesn’t have to be good—it just has to be true. So we set down the … Continue reading →

As Jupiter reaches opposition—when the giant of this solar systemlies between our blue marble and the sun— I will look up at nightfall and trackits progress across the winter sky,closer than ever to Earth, bright as a star. And should … Continue reading →

It’s been decades since I lustedafter a particular pool. My sister and I,young synchronized swimmers, fell hard for the Neptune poolon our first visit to Hearst Castle,and dreamed of doing ballet legs in that aqua water surroundedby a pseudo-Greek temple. … Continue reading →