Today I sliced you in half…
Where is Home?
“I know it’s morbid, my daughter says, “but I’ve been thinking about it, and so I’ll ask. If you and Dad die, is there enough life insurance to fly you home and bury you?” She asks him the same question over the phone, and he assures her there is plenty and more. I tell her I don’t […]
A Found Poem for Megan (repost)
Sometimes when you’re sandwiched between crises and you’re going through it without your mother, you just need to come out and play a little polo, find your balance with some red clover. Maybe slip your laptop into the red case and head to some sweet spot that sells veggies with a little turkey. Because that’s […]
Still Saturday: Sit Simply
To sit simply To sit Simply For one sweet hour And notice All that is Unfolding In the Light of day– That is A fine, fine Thing. A reservoir within Each of us needs A reservoir within, Because life doesn’t happen On an average. It has its hurricanes And droughts, And lovely days. So also […]
The Staying Power of Scarlet
“Just hold on and suck in.” Scarlett grips the bedpost while Mammy yanks on the corset and cinches Scarlett’s waist down to 18-1/2 inches. Laces her up right tight. Molds her right to form. Bones bear down to bear her in. I think about bone that once bore down on another’s side, fragments that […]
Dreaming With Darwish: Forms of the Dream
“Tell me how you lived your dream in some place, and I’ll tell you who you are.” ~Mahmoud Darwish It started as just a 30-day dream dare with Mahmoud Darwish. It’s been 60 days, and I’m not done with him yet. This poetry dare arrived in two parts: first, read a poem a day […]
There Is No Hurry
There is No Hurry I pour tomatoes and chop sweet onion, snip parsley frills and crush some basil, dash salt, sprinkle sugar. Stir. I race against the clock. Hurry. A tasty sauce takes time to simmer, but hungry stomachs will arrive at six. I rattle glasses, bang the stainless, wash and wipe. Outside a silver needle […]
A Random Act of Poetry for #raopoetryday
Four years ago, a still unknown someone gifted me a writer’s retreat at Laity Lodge in the Texas Hill Country. I got the call while sitting outside at a nursing home with my mom who had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor following a fall. The only workshop still open was a poetry […]
Dreaming With Darwish: Nurture Hope
The poet Mahmoud Darwish believed there needed to be a time gap between an event and the writing about it. My thoughts about this latest dare are like “cotton ginned by the wind.” Maybe I need a wider gap. I’ve sat most of this past week in “A State of Siege,” a long text […]
Dream Poem #4: Dreaming With Darwish
Well, things have been a bit quiet around here (the blog) for several weeks, and I don’t know where the summer has gone. My daughter is still displaced and dealing with insurance after her house fire. We’ve been working slowly on some house projects, and there have been a few trips out of town, […]
