Category Archives: Uncategorized

Listen, there’s no reason at all. Ask anyone.No one reads poetry. Who can understand it? And rich. Ha! Likely won’t earn you a dime.You’re writing for an audience of one: You. Which turns out is exactly what’s meant to be.The … Continue reading →

Sundae, July 19, 2026 Another reason to love July,though I don’t need one, giventhat it’s my favorite month, the one I looked forward to all year—summer vacation, no school,pool time, water skiing on the lake in the state park next … Continue reading →

Really, I just wanted flowers, but as Icruised the nursery—my antenna pickingup not-so-subtle messages from mylong-gone, veggie-growing husband—I felt compelled to adopt one small tomatoplant and a leafy, wanna-be cucumber,neither showing signs of food to come. “What do I need … Continue reading →

After lunch with a friend,walking home solo on what promisesto be a 100-degree day, you pause undera Chinese pistache shading the sidewalkand look up. Under the sign restricting parkingtowers a bit of all-caps encouragement:BEGIN It does not matter what needs … Continue reading →

Yeah, you two!I don’t care if he’s your brother—you can’t shove him into the pool.No, you can’t shove anyone into the pool.No, you can’t dunk him andhold him under either.I don’t care that he ate yourcookie. No, you can’t blow … Continue reading →

Dick Schmidt (guest poet) It’s always the right temperaturewhen you want to take a nap.

(In honor of Brother David Steindel-Rast’s 100th birthday) To swim, you must trust,said a wise man who hasnow achieved 100 yearson the planet. “You can learn as much asyou want about swimmingfrom books,” he said. “Youcan stand in the water … Continue reading →

Two summers ago she came to helpme sort through stuff in the garage,taking careful inventory of decades-old plastic bottles of bubbles, testing them, one bottle at a time,sitting on my deck, blowing bubbles.On hot days, I still see her there.Now … Continue reading →

(Ode to a Sacramento summer) We knew it’d show up eventually,after weeks of saying to each other,“Perfect weather, isn’t it?” and“Best summer I can remember.” Because we live in a land of too hot,a state of hot-hot, with the always-hottest … Continue reading →

The garden goddess next door,as part of her daily practice, standshose in hand, kindly watering the corner bed by my driveway—the creeping little daisies, the lastof the poppies, new cone flowers, the to-be Black-eyed Susans(still all leaves for the moment)—chatting … Continue reading →