This is still incomplete, but I have been meaning to publish it for ages (it’s been sitting in my drafts folder for over a year) and I keep getting distracted and not finishing it. So, here it is with most of the Roman books still needing to be added. I was compiling a list for […]
When the Children Have Gone to Bed
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 […]
Reading Notes May 2019
Finished Can You Forgive Her? by Trollope I read this with an online book group, a one-time Facebook group created by a friend of mine for the sole purpose of reading this novel together. I’ve really liked this idea of a one-off book club. You aren’t committing to reading a whole bunch of books with […]
Unsettled Lullaby
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 […]
Stalked by Poetry
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
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, […]
Mother’s Day Adventure in the City
It’s a strange paradox that sometimes what mothers (especially introvert mothers of young kids) want most for Mother’s Day is a little time away from their kids. It’s not that we don’t love them. Oh we do. But sometimes we can love a little better with a little distance. When you’re with your kids all […]
The Wild
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 […]
Reading Notes April 2019
Books Finished I finished Brothers Karamazov!!! I must say, this experience was very different from the first time through, in 2011, during the Lent that followed Anthony’s birth. At that time I knew I hadn’t read well. I noted: ” don’t know that I got very much out of my solitary read. I really need […]
Mater Dolorosa
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 […]