Sailing Boats, Morning The ship’s shadow ripples like spilled ink on the water’s soft blue gauze as if a clumsy scribe upset his bottle, distracted by the way the settling sun has stained the tops of the great brown sails with hearth fire’s dying coals. The harbor is a yellow haze haunted by ghost ships […]
With the So-Called Sick In the green crib the child is not sleeping. Shadow covers the top of the sleepless face and in the shadow the eyes are open wide. Are they looking at Mother’s face as she reads or watching the red pompoms on the toes of her jaunty slippers propped on the side […]
Under the Elder Tree the summer light sifts softly through the leaves and dapples the rosy-cheeked mother, kissing her hair as she sits easily on her straight wooden chair with a child cradled in her lap, so used to the weight and heft of that head pressed into her bosom that she doesn’t even think […]
The children are finally in bed and in the lamp’s glow mama has her mending spread before her on the table patching another rend or sewing on a button and on the other side of the table papa leans over his page. He’s reading to her and his voice fills the room. The geraniums […]
I’ve been playing around with various poetry writing prompts. I find that sometimes when I’m in a mood to write but don’t have any specific inspiration they can help to get things moving and I’ll find that I do have something to say after all. This prompt caught my eye: “Translate” a poem into English […]
I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been reading more poetry lately. That is, I’ve been seeking it out — and also finding it falling onto my plate, so to speak. I’m also noticing that opportunities to discuss poetry and to do close readings of poetry have been flinging themselves at me more and more […]
Lightship It’s May and the maple wings are flying; but my heart harks back to the bleak February day when your little boat put out into the deep. After a long winter of black branches flaying slate gray skies, the wind wears a leafy fullness and, in the warm space between the gray rain’s laments, […]
The Wild If you walk to the end of our street and stare across the state route down the lane between the rows of houses you will see a line of pine trees and if, holding hands, you cross the busy road and walk down and around the corner you will find a humming pumping […]
Mater Dolorosa Sometimes I get sad in the grocery store Tears well up in the produce section while I’m picking over avocados or broccoli. As if the original sadness of exiled Eve reaches out to touch me unexpectedly. It’s probably hormones — or maybe depression or perhaps just a deep memory unconsciously triggered by a […]
Great Blue Hill Did once waters run here carving dirt and stone into steps eating away soft earth to expose the roots of things— tree’s and granite’s bones— the strength at the heart of the hills? Can you believe the clear blue of the sky springing overhead, Trees uncurling spears into soft newness of leaves […]