07. home and away

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My daughter is headed off to college Tuesday. (And here is where I wrote a bunch of stuff about her, and then deleted it, because it always feels icky to talk *too* much about her because it's her own story to tell.) Of course, my only kid leaving for college is a huge deal. But it's also not. The college that ended up being her "ultimate dream college" is, ironically, ten minutes away from our…

06. “Italian Lesson”

the boy plays with the wooden horse       il ragazzo gioca con il cavallo di legnothe seasons change       le stagioni cambianoI have never seen a volcano       non ho mai visto un vulcanowe need wood for the fire       abbiamo bisogno di legno per il fuocothe wet wood is not good       il legno bagnato non è buonohe saw smoke in the sky       ha visto fumo nel cielothen it is a volcano       allora è un vulcanothere is sand in my shoes       c’è sabbia nelle mie scarpethe children…

05. genuine connections in the age of social media

Sonnet My thoughts through yours refracted into speechtransmute this room musically tonight,the notes of contact flowing, rhythmic, brightwith an informal art beyond my single reach. Outside, dark birds fly in a greening time :wings of our sistered wishes beat these walls :and words afflict our minds in near footfallsapproaching with latening hour’s chime. And if an essential thing has flown between us,rare intellectual bird of communication,let us seize it quickly : let our preferencechoose it instead of softer things…

04. If someone asks, this is where I’ll be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8JhOSps_0 "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" Talking Heads "I can't tell one from anotherDid I find you, or you find me?There was a time before we were bornIf someone asks, this where I'll be, where I'll be"

02. restarting

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I have been thinking a lot about the idea and feeling of "longing" these past few months. There's a lot of definitions and interpretations of what this can mean for people- nostalgia, acute desire, etc. but for me, it’s more of a yearning to find a source for a specific state of deep contentedness and joy, which has been pretty elusive to me my whole life, but something I can actually feel and imagine when…

01. a quote on self-criticism

"Clarissa Pinkola Estés has remarked that in old stories, those who are gentle with what is undesirable are many times blessed, while those who scorn and reject [what is not perfect] are either barred from their desires, or punished, often cruelly. This lesson can be applied to how we to respond to things about ourselves we don’t like ... when we’re cold and rejecting toward the things in ourselves that we find grotesque and undesirable,…