NURSING HOME HEROES
The staff members of every nursing home across the United States are freaking heroes. They have my eternal gratitude, especially the nurses in my mother’s nursing home who are taking…
LEARNING TO LOVE IN LOCKDOWN
After posting this poem and photo of my mom and me, I made a greeting card of it and sent it to my beautiful mother because she is alone in…
APRIL SUPPORTS SURVIVORS
Beautiful people, April is recognized as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and it also contains National Crime Victim’s Rights Awareness Week. In honor of survivors of childhood sexual…
LOVE AND GRACE IN QUARANTINE
Days ago, I thought I might do a livestream to offer something of myself out to you daily. I realized over the last two days that nothing I have to…
HEIRLOOM
My mother is most beautiful after losing herself in her garden,on her knees, hands in the dark earth,tending gently to things growinghalf an acre from our house.Just beyond dusk, she’d walk…
LEGENDS MEET: MALALA AND GRETA
Two young women, who are already legends for their activism and leadership, met yesterday at Oxford University. Malala Yousafzai, now only 22 years of age, won the Nobel Peace Prize…
BUILDING ALTARS
Let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends,and build altars.-Pádraig Ó TuamaI keep listening to this poem, Oremus, that was read by Pádraig O'Tuama during a recent interview…
DIAL-A-POEM
How brilliant is this? Dial-A-Poem.To call in the United States, dial: 1 (641) 793-8122.I just called and got Charles Bukowski, reading his poem Cloud Nine.All peace to each one of…
ORIGIN #11
Which came first, my love? The night sky, or the fissure of light splitting it?So many years ago, at dinner, you said to me,just before we sat at the glass-topped table,after…
GIVING THANKS ON GIVING TUESDAY
The Pennsylvania Governor's Pathfinders Awards Ceremony was held in Harrisburg today. A friend sent this photo to me via text, telling me that past winners were acknowledged today as part…
SANCTUARY
My work day closes with the delivery of this box containing the chapbook and amenities/makeup bag created from my poem, Sanctuary, which I was commissioned to write to commemorate the…
Festival of Lights
Today is the Hindu celebration of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, honoring the triumph of light over darkness, and it is also the New Moon in Scorpio, representing new beginnings…
THE LAST DAY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH
Today is the last day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and I’m still signing a stack of my books, the scorched earth, on special order. Signing books never gets old,…
FIRST THOUGHT (#33)
First thought: Today the daylight is two minutes and seventeen seconds shorter than yesterday. Second thought: One open window to the air before sunrise, its hitch and chill; the raven…
DEGREE OF ILLUMINATION
Would you know the degree of illumination the moon was willing to bestow upon you if you turned your open face skyward to take her in? What if there was…
LET GO.
The apricot tree is so full of fruit that the branches have bent to the ground. One branch snapped off, jagged torn from the trunk. Sometimes part of us can…