I’ve been misreading words again. Chance to lance, wind to wind. It’s as confusing as a analog clock face to a digital gil. I mean girl. I mean gal. No related posts. No related posts.

Day starts with chirps, O’ robins! The mumble of a towhee, impossible tune of a sparrow. Now these word wranglings close in as if it is January, cold and dark. * * * Related posts: stones; a river: 31 stones; … Continue reading →

some say it’s the worst day of the year but we can hear the rain * * * Related posts: a river of stones (22) a river of stones (1) stones; a river: 16 Related posts: a river of stones (22)

Rain hard enough to knock moss from the trees. A nap interrupted by clattering drops. * * * Related posts: a river of stones (6) a river of stones (12) a river of stones (11) Related posts: a river of stones

While things aren’t necessarily looking up, there are positive things happening. In-home physical therapy started yesterday & I was glad to have stayed another day, to have been able to watch & listen. I most regret leaving Pop behind, to … Cont

I may or may not keep up with these short snippets hard as a rock in my shoe. I’m heading to AZ this morning to be with my folks. Mom had an extended hospital stay the first week of the … Continue reading → No related posts.

We remember it differently. Who was in the house. Who wasn’t. The shape of the tree in later summer, whether the coffee was strong enough. Whether spirits drifted or were lifted. * * * Related posts: stones; a river: 4 … Continue reading U

Hard pears picked months too early, as beautiful as carved mahogany, sliced, pealed, cored and induced with sugar, spice and ruby port to transition in my mouth. Soft as the old wounds turned to pink flesh. * * * Related … Continue reading →

The arborio rice soaks up and changes. Hot water and soy milk move through hard cell walls. Glistening bubbled silk is unmasked by salt tears, a chemical reaction not unlike family reunions. This new cooking technique undercuts all those confections … Co

That wolf moon? Leering over the eastern pines? Whimpered this morning, called me from tussled sheets, a mess of dreams tossed at his whine, begging for more than I could give. * * * Still writing stones. * * * … Continue reading →

Hatch chilies in the UPS, more heat than I can manage. A separate pack: news that mother’s heart is spent. Mixed translation, heart’s beats known/unknown, if/if not. Yellow orange green index tear-full mix of love, dried but not yet tallied. …

Liquidambar, sweet gum, you are still green, you have forgotten it’s 18 days since Solstice. Tomorrow brings the full wolf moon to howl at your fruit, brown and prickly on the ground. Old Town homeless will park in doorways, hide … Continue reading

How cabbage sweetens over high heat — brown bits a foreign treat, not dirt. Take something to the edge of edible and surprise the appetite. * * * Related posts: a river of stones (3) a river of stones (5) … Continue reading →

If you ask me the color forecast for 2012 I’ll tell you. Golden-crowned kinglets and mossed-over trees. Last year’s maple leaves muddled into basalt chips. A northern flicker’s cheeks, the forehead of a scrub jay. Snowberries like loose pearls lost …

Canada geese stitch the sky; hummingbird knot in a lone twiggy tree. * * * Um. Late. But thought about, then forgotten. The anti-stone, I suppose. My mother’s been very ill and staying at her local hospital. (UTI gone urosepsis, … Continue reading

A glorious day that made me thankful for a reduced work week. I could enjoy a morning walk with Sport & get exercise and mental relief all at once. Cormorants, Anna’s hummingbirds, gulls, song sparrows, house sparrows, flickers, crows — …

Green striped by an early winter sun. Cormorants flex their stretch. Blues and grays a watercolor river. The sky is more than enough. * * * Related posts: stones; a river: 16 stones; a river: 14 stones; a river: 17 Related posts:

Here’s a terrific photo, taken the morning after the Christmas Bird Count team’s discovery. If you are curious and want more, search Google images for “albino robin.” I can’t stop thinking about that lovely bird. Related posts: Christmas Bird Count 2011 …

Fluorescent pink edges a quilted sky; your heart, each beat counted twice. * * * Related posts: stones; a river: 2 stones; a river: 15 a river of stones (1) Related posts: stones; a river: 2

the albino bird hides in holly a robin only when his head is cocked * * * There is proof of that albino robin, spotted during Portland’s Christmas Bird Count. * * * Related posts: stones; a river: 6 stones; … Continue reading →

today’s a stake wind-blown cover flapping wild * * * For Sharon’s Year’s Haiku dance. And for … Thank you three, and all the participants, for inspiration. Related posts: stones; a river: 14 stones; a river: 24 stones; a river: … Conti

December started very dry (and ended the year being one of the five driest on record) but got quite wet the end of the month. Luckily Saturday 12/31 was dry, if cold, which made wandering around for 7.5 hours easier … Continue reading

A couple of blogging writers/artists/creatives I admire post their what-I-read list the end of the year. I’ve been inspired to do the same (and finally did it — see below). I’d hoped to read 20 books of poetry this year, … Continue reading

Sharon Brogan of Watermark has launched her New Year’s Haiku dance. Go read and write. And write and read. My first (thinking there may be more): between change and more change No related posts. No related posts.

Yes, yes! I am participating again this year! The Portland, Oregon in-the-field count day is December 31st! (The date varies around the state and world, starting as early as today, the 14th!) I’ll be in Area 3 again (around Lake … Continue rea

Curio is live! Curio Poetry All great things have their origin in that which is small. Lao Tse   I am thrilled to be in the company of Vivienne Blake, James Brush, Ron. Lavalette, Annette Mickelson, & Barbara Yates Young … Continue reading →

I went to Arizona Monday morning to be at the heart hospital when my mom had a pacemaker put in, both for her comfort and dad’s. I’m glad I went; I am glad to be back home. She is doing … Continue reading → No related posts.

I Started This One Hobby Rewriting Stories Everyone does it, the white lie bartered to save someone else’s honor, the bald-face lie, calling not to a hornet, lively wasp, but a baby- face so beguiling as impossible to disbelieve. Which … Con

I Started This One Hobby Counting in My Head Doing sums in ones head is taxing even more divisive is division, compulsorily holding over hundreths all the whilst imagining that wry little box with its no-name description, “long division symbol”, … Continue r

I Started This One Hobby Trading in Good Old Days And here I thought gilt was added by the artist: make a halo for the saints iconic and spell bound eyes cast down or off-stage only straightforward if you were … Continue reading →