As you know, Bananagrams and Boggle are word games with letter tiles that players use to build words faster than their opponents. Once a week, son and daughter-in-law play with me on Zoom, and they crush me. I use words to write, right?
Read moreCorona Diary #6 - Cupid Shot an Arrow
“Cupid shot an arrow,” he says to me when he’s feeling good. “I had the perfect scenario (said the spider to the fly)—dinner at Rancho Grande in Greenwich Village followed by a night cap at the Irish Pub. It wasn’t supposed to last forever.”
I’m trying to put my head around all of this. It wants to be explained….
Read moreCorona Diary #5 - Moments of Grace
The rabbits come out to frolic at 6, not quite sundown. I noticed this one evening when I parked my car on the driveway and chanced to look into our small bowl of a garden--mostly a scoop of lawn surrounded by evergreen bushes and three small hemlocks. There they were, five or six plump grey rabbits hopping about—just like in a children’s story book!
Read moreCorona Diary #4 - Buckets of Rain
Yesterday I was wondering what I’d write to you—whoever out there may be listening (let me know you are here!). I was feeling low and out of sorts, confused as we all are, the ones who are not battling fist to fist and eye to eye with this unsympathetic virus. Silly tropes about self worth are creeping up and infected my thoughts.
Read moreCorona diary #3 - How we cope
The heavy pink magnolia blossoms are at their peak. Chunky, crab apple trees, weeping willows, and white-blooming pear trees are starting to burst.
Now, I pursue the ritual washing of lemons, cucumbers, and radishes in soapy water, wiping down the mail slot and doorknobs with clorox and letting the mail sit for a day. It’s hard to concentrate on much else, even on days when I promise me to stop listening to the stories about the new evil—and the valiant work of our heroes. Ordinary people coming together is heartening. That some don’t feel this urge is disheartening.
Read moreCorona Diary #2
The yellow forsythia shoots are at their peak and the star magnolia trees are just beginning to bloom pink.
The strong fiber of this nation is coming through. There are smart people who care deeply and are working for all of us. I can do that too, in whatever way I can.
Read moreCorona Diary #1
We go about our lives singly or in pairs as in the Ark--especially in the cities of the world—and I am with my pair, self-sequestered (not sick).
Read moreWhat is a poem?
Start with the concrete, she tells us. I’ve been listening to the sound of the toilet flushing, the occasional creaks in the heating system, and an unidentified drip outside.
Read moreChildhood’s Gifts to Memoir
When we are kids we’re protagonists in a one person play as we measure up against the world. Everything is vivid; feelings are fierce. This is pure gold for writers.
Read moreWhat will you allow yourself to be open to?
We are vulnerable. Let’s celebrate this fact of life. The hurt, the anger, the noticing, the love. It’s never about perfection. Perfection covers up all the interesting things about being human.
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