My first awareness of a quilt, crazy or not, was as it covered a cot right outside my grandparent’s bathroom in the hall off the kitchen at their old 12th avenue home. The quilt was mostly dark with many rough gray squares of material occasionally punctuated by reds and softer fabrics.… Read full post »

When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you connect with an underlying field of infinite possibilities.
Deepak Chopra

"Did you remember that Eliza's first communion is tomorrow?" her husband asked.  

"Sure.” she replied absently pulling&n… Read full post »

I hug the tiny pillow

arched within my arm

beneath my chin

just so

Ensuring

satin-edged dreams: 

pink snow suits

nap-damp curls 

cheerios and yellow ducks

storytime

and sticky kisses

just so

Remembering

the way you fit

against my neck

within my heart

just s… Read full post »

Two days ago, Chez and others graduated. I saw him early in May when I visited my former school's Fine Arts Fest. He surprised me with a hug from behind. "I'd know you anywhere!"

"Geez! What does that mean? I have bed-head???"  "I'm so glad to see you,"… Read full post »

We met on a sidewalk in September, 1968, just outside a movie theater on Green Street in Champaign Illinois. From that second forward we were dear close friends. Mike embodies the best of a Midwesterner's sensibility and approach to life. He’s open, gregarious, shirt-off-his-back generous, down… Read full post »

To my wonderful seniors,

"The completion of an important project or phase of our lives has every right to be dignified by a natural grieving process. Something that required the best of us has ended, and we shall miss it.” Anne Wilson Schaef

Here we are, standing in a doorway… Read full post »

I started hoping for and eventually believing in signs during the death knell of my first marriage while still attempting to "save it". Initially, I sought an outward manifestation that was undeniably tied to my desperation. I prayed constantly, pleading for a visible promise that some… Read full post »

 I don’t want to talk about  the evening you buried her alive in a volcanic explosion of ash and molten words- raining rockhard and fast upon (then deep within) her mind and heart…scorching all the ways she sees herself.

I don’t want to thin… Read full post »

Responding to Alyssa's (and Cindy Ross's ancient)  open call, I chose my favorites one and all...

Too tired to narrow down the field, I left you 5 for five and yield! 

Thanks for any and all old and new inviting open calls about favorites! Perhaps longer than intended, but fu… Read full post »

Oh the heels of the Academy Awards, I can't help but realize that it's really just a matter of time. Some day soon,  the man, the myth, the legend, our very own Cranky Cuss, will attract the eye and lens of some well funded screenwriter. The inevitable biographical f… Read full post »

In bitter winds

cardinals cling to black limbs

more calligraphy now than branches.

Brilliant wings flicker

like luminaries in the night

whispering memories

of spirits flown too soon

seen or sensed as redbirds

through a frozen window

flashing scarlet… Read full post »

Know you what it is to be a child?

It is to be something very different from the man or woman of today.

It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism;

it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness,

to… Read full post »

Exceptional teaching is marked by a teacher's unquenchable fire and their fervent belief that they have the power to… Read full post »

1)     NOTHING  can prepare you for the intensity of the love you feel for your child.

2)   …nor the fiercely protective instincts on their behalf.  Grrrrr.

3)   Other people’s children are akin to canned peas, while yours are fres… Read full post »

Pour me another

hot cup of your world
so I can sit here awhile
closing my eyes
turning  off my life
ignoring the clock

to listen

(heart wrapped around the heat )
sipping slowly

breathing gratefully

noting

how the words trickle slowly
(warmth washing gladly)

o'… Read full post »

 Lily Mae and me. Taken 3 years ago on my back porch.

Joanie and Mime are right. I don't get full blown annoyed that often. Teaching at the secondary level requires the patience of Job. I don't have it, but I've learned to fake it and that works… Read full post »

My random 5 annoyances: (in no particular order)

The math teacher who motors our school in her “Scooter” rounding corners at nearly 60mph. (I’ve seen her speed up to enhance the thrill.) What the hell, Betty? Do you own stock in those things? How many of us able-bodied are you… Read full post »

He wore his sweetness

like a mantle

and willingly bore

the kind of thoughtfulness

that comes from being

the man of the house

when your father dies

and you are just ten.

Buster donned a uniform

in the early 1950's

right after his mother

began bringing men… Read full post »

I see blue and white tile on the corner entrance to a stone building; the tile is European, Delft and carefully crafted. A bell rings and a door closes heavily; I am inside the shop. Beneath my feet a wooden floor creaks announcing every shifted movement over the planks.  I hear e… Read full post »

There it was: Kay’s porch.  

Annie tried to shake it off.  “Oh C’mon. Really? What now?” she wondered.

For as many times as this kind of thing happened, it was still difficult to describe to other people. Not that she would even attempt to do so in most cases. W… Read full post »

This poem is dedicated to those who make their dreams come true...who defy their limitations...and to those who need to believe in their own power once again. What is stopping US?

LimitLESS

Legless – Armless

KNOWS no limits

DARES to dream

EVERY DAY

WILLS to LIVE

FULLY.… Read full post »

I am from salt...thrown over your left shoulder-a superstitious blessing.

I am from "the salt of the earth"...and "take it with a grain of" ...trust but verify...SALT.   

I am from fresh brewed Norwegian Egg coffee and Sue Bee Honey...slotted spoons, soup ladles, mesh strainers and gra… Read full post »

1. Lingerie & pajamas. What do you really sleep in?

I sleep in the buff. I may start out sleeping in an oversized flannel gown or my supersoft pink robe, but somewhere in the night I strip down and drift off to oblivion au naturel. Hot flashes might have something to do with it… Read full post »

 1.     My mother became pregnant on her honeymoon but lost the baby two and a half months later. The next month I came along. The day after I was born, my parents celebrated their first anniversary by walking down to visit me in a hospital nursery. When I was a… Read full post »

We met on a sidewalk in September, 1968, just outside a movie theater on Green Street in Champaign Illinois. From that second forward we were dear close friends. Mike embodies the best of a Midwesterner's sensibility and approach to life. He’s open, gregarious, shirt-off-his-back generous,… Read full post »