I’ve been reorganizing my poetry bookshelves, as one does during a pandemic, slowly sorting through books I’ve collected over the past thirty years. Most I sort by last name, slotting Barbara Ras […]
The Love of Poetry
What She Said, May 12: Katherine Riegel
Our private and beautiful body parts/ should be renamed. There should be as many/ ways to describe them as there are seashells.
– Katherine Riegel
Ice Storm Quarantine
Nearly every spring when I was a kid in the 1970s, growing up on a horse farm in rural central Illinois, we had ice storms. Often they came in the late afternoon, […]
Spaying and Neutering: It’s a Dog’s Life
“But it is an emergency,” I want to say, or rather wail, as the woman on the other end of the phone says goodbye. No, this isn’t about COVID-19 or any other […]
The Weight Dilemma
The first time my mother disparaged my weight, I was thirteen. I wore a size 7. My best friend and I were shopping, finding outfits for the fashion show our dramatic choir […]
Dear Sister: A Gratitude Letter
Dear Sister, A friend is doing a gratitude diary and it’s been helping her a lot, so I thought I’d try as well. I believe in the practice of gratitude, have seen […]
A Must Read Essay
The author of the essay “Whatever Happened to ________?” published anonymously, because she had to. Stalked by an ex-husband who freaked out due to her greater success as a writer, she has […]
Poetry Chain Letter
I’ve recently been the recipient of a handful of chain email plans, all with one idea: share quotes from poems that have been meaningful, inspiring, or comforting to you. The details of […]
Why I Bought a Golden Retriever Puppy—Even Though I Believe in Rescue
In the 1990s, I had two Golden Retrievers that I took over from my mother. She’d found that they needed too much exercise and she didn’t have the energy for them, and […]
Spending a Life: My Sister, Cancer, and the Present Moment
These days, I write about only one subject: my sister’s cancer. It’s the only subject that feels urgent, the one that dominates my days. Even when my sister and I don’t talk […]
