Hey, it's National Poetry Month, so I've decided to post a few poems this April. It's been fun for me to look back over my decades-long collection of poems to find a few that will be just right for this moment in time. None of those wild, whiny, passionate unrequited love poems I seemed prone … Continue reading How to Find the Muse
When I was 21 I went to Europe on a five-week student tour with my best friends. On our last day we were in England, and we went on a boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich. I have several memories of that day, a few funny stories, conversations, photos, but there was one image … Continue reading Sheltering-in-Place
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is a well-written, topical book, an engrossing read, and the basis for a brand-new series starring Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon on Hulu. I want to tell you what I think about it, but let’s face it, I’m sure you can go online or pick up a TV guide … Continue reading Little Fires Everywhere, a consideration of race and class in America
For Saint Patrick’s Day, I thought I would share a bit of Irish history (sometimes called mythology). This poem tells the story of Patrick’s encounter with a poet named Oisin. Oisin (pronounced O-sheen) was the son of Finn MacUail (pronounced M’Cool) who was a great warrior. Oisin was the poet who recorded his father’s great … Continue reading Oisin and Patrick: an Irish Tale
When I feel sad disconnected unsure of where I belong I invite the poet in. She will remember the soft yellow-gray belly of the mocking bird vibrating as he trills high above me on the outer branch of a tree at the edge of the bridge. Darn, I can’t remember what kind of tree … Continue reading Poetic License
Alice Hoffman’s “The World That We Knew” is an achingly beautiful fairy tale about the Holocaust. Her novel emphasizes the plight of children separated from their parents: Jewish children and the offspring of Resistance Fighters hiding with false ID’s in convent schools; others roaming by themselves or in small groups in the forest, foraging for … Continue reading The World That We Knew, a review
Written with the prompts: take a cat nap, some of the rocks, anger, majestic benevolence, grand rising, I got the real story a few days later I like to take a cat nap mid-afternoon and I won’t apologize for that. When I took up with Harold, he used to tease me about it, told me … Continue reading Cat Naps and Rock Candy
Hey, it's Valentine's Day, so I decided to dig up one of my sweetest little love stories of all time. It's all about the breath. And chocolate. Written with my Thursday group with these prompts: Mr. I Can’t, Oh shit, Rufus said, hallways, chocolate yes indeed Matilda called Rufus Mr. I Can’t, Mr. Rain On … Continue reading The Breath of the Universe
Written with the prompts: Angus lost a shoe not far from the folly, busy street but you are alone, dog named Moose who didn’t like men, buyer’s remorse, refuse, I can carry on It all started the night Marilyn’s husband Angus lost his shoe somewhere in the backyard, near the gazebo that Marilyn called … Continue reading Marilyn’s Folly
I can’t remember the number of times I’ve read Little Women. I’m pretty sure I read it at least twice when I was a kid, but perhaps it was three times or more. I read it again in my late 20s/early 30s when the book group I’d formed with friends decided to read it—or I … Continue reading Little Women, a consideration
