Hey, it's April!--National Poetry Month--and I'd like to share with you some ekphrastic poems I wrote this past year. I encountered prompts to write ekphrastic poems in more than one lit journal and workshop. It seems ekphrastic poems are having a moment, I guess. You may be wondering what ekphrastic poems are. Ekphrastic poems are … Continue reading The Arrival of Spring in Normandy, 2020, after David Hockney
Years ago I had a student named Joseph who was deaf and mute and on the autism spectrum. He was 9 years-old, with big brown eyes, and sandy hair. I loved him and I knew he trusted me. When it was time to come in from the playground, he could not hear the bell, so … Continue reading Wagons
Prompts: Still a vigorous man, three doors where your life is headed, work clothes come off, modern attachments, the French was on the boards, ride my indoor bike, mosaics with flowers, part of the humor of everyday life Madelaine sat in a straight-backed chair, arranging the broken pieces of crockery into a pleasing design on … Continue reading The Humor of Everyday Life
Written with my Thursday night group. The prompt was “the wind has to stop!” But I interpreted it a bit differently. The wind has two stops. It curls down Alhambra Boulevard and stops near the corner of 29thand R Streets. It greets the people waiting at the light rail station with the scent of the river, … Continue reading The Wind
It’s been a year now since I’ve retired from teaching, and I’m sure it will surprise no one when I say retirement is GREAT! Every now and then a friend approaching retirement age will ask, “Do you ever get bored?” My response to that is an unqualified “Heck no!” Sometimes someone will counter with, “Yes, … Continue reading Tending My Muse
