friendship
My secret pleasure, revealed
I’m a stickler about thank-you notes, a real pain to my children after birthdays and Christmas, and self-righteous and judgey when my own presents aren’t acknowledged. And yet, as with other deep and firmly-held beliefs, I can be a hypocrite about applying the rules to myself. Which is all to confess that I haven’t sent […]
MoreA chain that holds
Last Saturday morning I participated in a breast cancer walk. The night before, I leafed through my poem stash to pick out a few to take with me, and it was then that I realized that a blog post on breast cancer should include my own health history. I felt uneasy about that for a few reasons. […]
MoreFourth annual Valentine’s Day poem blitz
Every Valentine’s Day I brainstorm for places that romantically-inclined or romantically-averse folks might congregate as they prepare for the holiday or prepare to avoid it. In the past I’ve left love poems in a chocolate store, post office, senior citizen’s home, a food court, a lonely-looking motel, the floral department of a grocery store. Now in my […]
MoreStrangers and strange soul mates
The Same Inside by Anna Swir Walking to your place for a love feast I saw at a street corner an old beggar woman. I took her hand, kissed her delicate cheek, we talked, she was the same inside as I am, from the same kind, I sensed this instantly as a dog […]
MoreI’m singing in the cold, just singing in the cold!
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind by William Shakespeare Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then, heigh-ho, […]
MoreA loss, and a loss remembered
The great Irish poet Seamus Heaney has died, only 74 years old. Obituaries characterize him as a rock star among poets, and that was my experience of him, long before I had even read his poems. Years ago I went to hear him read at the University of Michigan with a dear friend. This […]
MoreLove love love, with or without a lover
I was just at the post office mailing my Valentine’s Day cards, and there I met the friendliest woman on the planet. In five minutes’ conversation we covered the Pope’s resignation, all the Charlie Brown characters we could remember, her favorite candies, recent films we’ve seen, and who she’s sending Valentine cards to. After a […]
MoreEnlightened tea
Poem by Thomas McGrath How could I have come so far? (And always on such dark trails?) I must have traveled by the light Shining from the faces of all those I have loved. If I were skilled in the art of micrographia, I would copy this poem on vellum in […]
MoreSolace
A few days after Christmas, a dear friend from high school passed away after a 15-year battle with breast cancer. When I first met Christine freshman year, she was the prettiest girl I’d ever met and certainly the friendliest. Anyone sizing up the two of us—she blond and bubbly, me silent and awkward—would not have […]
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