Category Archives: Uncategorized

My mother has lost the little gold penknifemy father used to open small packages,and it’s driving her nuts that she can’t find it, she says, as her ride arrives forher evening excursion. It has to be onthe side table, she … Continue reading →

“I wish”—whispers the bottom stair, trod by countlessfeet, in the translated words of Hafez, “I could show you”—the 14th-century Sufi poet’swritings about divine love, “when you are”—in his birthplace of Shiraz,he who learned the Quran by heart, “lonely or”—whom others … Continue reading →

(for Robert Gordon, with thanks) How many people can say theywalked out on their front porchesmidday on a mid-September Sunday to find two zombie/skeletonsculptures propped up like ghoulishJesuses on survey-stake crosses? Not many, I’ll wager, unless like me,they’re lucky enough … Continue reading →

(May 2021) Books boxed, shelves emptied,left like gaping mouths, every bitof paper in the filing cabinetsboxed, too—nothing left behindfor recycling—no one to removeit on the pandemic-closed campus. No one to say goodbye. Faithful iMac wiped cleanof so many documents/photos/whole publications. … Continue reading →

Shanah tovah, our Jewish friendssay this weekend, offering us all wishes for the good new year 5784,this Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the universe, asking forgivenessfor mistakes, which I ask, too, as I cut up apples, dip them in honey,crack … Continue reading →

Of all the poems I could write today,one about a cat gazing adoringlyat Dickie—as he laptops at my houseduring an internet outage at his— seems so trivial in these desperatetimes of fire and flood, earthquakesand mudslides, of so much sufferingin … Continue reading →

I’m afraid to open the can,unloose the magic, or not— what if it contains possum teethand snail shells, rose petals crumbled to bits, someunpretty pebbles and a dried- up pen? I want swirly light,a waft of lavender-verbena and glitter (because, … Continue reading →

Plant my heart on a stickright there in the garden wherepassers-by can see it, perhaps pause to admireit, say something like, Look at that heartstanding so tall and proud, perhaps put a handon their sturdy chests, feel the lub-dub of … Continue reading →

I missed National Ampersand Day,days ago, not that it mattersparticularly, but dang, it’s my favorite symbol&&&&&&&&&this Latin doohickey “et,”, which, cleverly means“and,” & to top it off is anifty ligature—two or more letters combined to makea symbol, an ancient one,found … Continue reading →

Look, I say to him as I water the lastof the hollyhocks, small burstssprouting from the yellow-stick stalks that all summer long sported baby pinkfrilly numbers fluttering like tutus.I hope you’re up there—wherever there is— offering a metaphorical hand to … Continue reading →