In Several Colors by Jane Kenyon From Collected Poems Every morning, cup of coffee in hand, I look out at the mountain. Ordinarily, it’s blue, but today it’s the color of an eggplant. And the sky turns from gray to pale apricot as the sun rolls up Main Street in Andover. I study the cat’s face and find a trace […]
Poem: Myth Dispelled
Myth Dispelled –Adam Possner, M.D. The flu vaccine cannot give you the flu, I tell him. It’s dead virus, there’s nothing alive about it. It can’t make you sick. That’s a myth. But if we bury it in the grassy knoll of your shoulder, an inch under the stratum corneum, as sanctioned by your signature in a white-coated ceremony presided […]
2021 Stitch-a-Long Update
I continue to work on the 2021 Peppermint Purple SAL. I just finished the block for week 29. It’s good to have a second piece to work on while waiting for the blocks of the 2022 SAL!
Poem: For the Bird Singing before Dawn
For the Bird Singing before Dawn –Kim Stafford Some people presume to be hopeful when there is no evidence for hope, to be happy when there is no cause. Let me say now, I’m with them. In deep darkness on a cold twig in a dangerous world, one first little fluff lets out a peep, a warble, a song—and in […]
Poem: Love and Life
Love and Life by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester All my past life is mine no more; The flying hours are gone, Like transitory dreams given o’er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone. The time that is to come is not; How can it then be mine? The present moment‘s all my lot; And that, as fast as it is got, […]
Poem: the earth is a living thing
the earth is a living thing –Lucille Clifton From Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton is a black shambling bear ruffling its wild back and tossing mountains into the sea is a black hawk circling the burying ground circling the bones picked clean and discarded is a fish black blind in the belly of water is a diamond blind in the […]
Unvaccinated People Increase Risk for Vaccinated People
I can’t say that I’m surprised. Remaining unvaccinated increases risk to the vaccinated, says U of T COVID study People who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 not only place themselves at greater risk of getting infected by the virus, but also increase the infection risk of those around them who have rolled up their sleeves for a […]
Poem: I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth
I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth –Fatimah Asghar so I count my hopes: the bumblebees are making a comeback, one snug tight in a purple flower I passed to get to you; your favorite color is purple but Prince’s was orange & we both find this […]
Poem: Good Grief
Good Grief –KB Brookins after the 2021 Texas Winter Storm I’ll admit that I’ve never thought about frostbite. Trauma of the blood, a thing to be avoided when heat goes out for an entire state. I don’t know where to place this grief, this sweltering state freezing, politicians breezing over to a country that doesn’t have […]
Week 16 of the 2022 Peppermint Purple SAL
This week’s block was very simple.