February 2011
5 posts
1 tag
Small Stone #31
Sick Day
A sanguine smile
as she scrambles into bed
and points her feet at me.
“Mawr,” she says
one hand rubs her belly
as she grins at the spoon.
“Mawr ice-cream.”
January 2011
40 posts
1 tag
Small Stone #30
carnelian molasses pools at the bottom
of a clear glass bowl
Small Stone #29
On the ferry,
guitar case under my feet
eating raisin bread plain
and by the slice.
1 tag
Small Stone #28
Neon signs pointing the way
to the restroom?
Small Stone #27
early morning, January
fog fills the canal
the hills of Queen Anne
are a waking dream
walk past the dogwood tree
with the pink buds
that never blossomed or died
1 tag
Small Stone #26
the four year old in the blue velour sundress and red shoes
shoves the big duck towards the waterfall and turns
wiping her hands and nodding at her father,
“I’m done here,” she says.
2 tags
Small Stone #25
Powering the Fremont Rocket
five point stars and
dotted stars, the pointed sun
and moon.
2 tags
1 tag
Small Stone #24
Raegan’s Chalice
On a patch of ice
forgotten in the green sea
the redhead dances.
2 tags
“On Children
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons...”
– Kahlil Jibran
2 tags
Kidlet Food
Kidlet is in her booster seat, digging into bowls of pickle, toasted flatbread, hummus, lettuce, and celery. Some days I’m not sure if I gave birth to a little girl or a Mediterranean rabbit.
4 tags
Downton Abbey Recap
Thanks to Barry and Kiki at Pop Morsels, who published the recap I wrote of Downton Abbey, episode 3, which aired on PBS last night. Go give it a read and let us know what you think!
Lady Sybil shows off her new pants! Photo courtesy of iTV.
1 tag
Small Stone #23
blades of grass in a square glass jar
3 tags
1 tag
Small Stone #22
giggling under blankets
hiding from the baby
1 tag
Small Stone #21
too many
white paper cups stacked
below the coffee pot
in this tiny waiting room
1 tag
Small Stone #20
little brown feet in front of the fire
and a big smile
1 tag
Small Stone #19
little girl with the two dark braids
kneeling by the fatty waters
2 tags
1 tag
Small Stone #18
red boots on concrete, wet and shining
2 tags
Small Stone #17
Warm Spell in January
It’s warm enough to sleep with the window open.
Fresh air like early spring
crisp as a cold glass,
carrying songs of the birds passing over the mountains,
the deep snores of tugboats,
and other sounds at the edge of the city.
1 tag
Small Stone #16
creaking chairs on the balcony
1 tag
Small Stone #15
Talking Back
You say I made-you-feel
this way
that’s like blaming the mirror
for the run in your hose.
1 tag
Small Stone #14
Teardrops on the touch screen
cannot End Call.
2 tags
Small Stone #13
Facing Candles
We sit round on hard chairs
in semi-darkness
welcoming all hopes and fears
spoken from the shadows.
I am silent
a phototropic organism
bending
but I can feel love in the corners
grasping at me
a blindfolded child at play.
1 tag
Small Stone #12
Not a Fair Trade
Self-respect for “harmony” -
Is the wound in harmony
with the gauze that wraps it?
2 tags
Small Stone #11
Western Pond Turtle
Neck stretching above the waterline
chubby mittens clawing without symmetry
swimming like you can’t swim
desperately trying to tell me something
from the other side of the glass.
1 tag
Small Stone #10
Only Child
Opening and closing
scissors from the art box
with two hands.
Singing about flowers in the garden,
tigers,
ice cream,
and dinosaurs.
1 tag
Small Stone #9
At the Barber Shop
Faux history on the walls
History cut out from magazines
no one read.
1 tag
Small Stone #8
Two
The widest person I ever saw
turned out
to be two
huddled together
silent walk
up the hill
after drinks at the bar.
1 tag
Small Stone #7
Like Lappeenranta
Through the round window:
the fog fills in the spaces between
the houses and the hills
the scene out there is still
as a diaroma
and I am transported
seven thousand miles away
to that churchyard in Lappeenranta.
2 tags
A Poem for Winter
I wrote this as an exercise at a poetry group. We all had to write on a similar thing: snow.
Snow
We returned to find
dark earth slumbering
she had slipped on the white pall
her ears barely register the sounds
of children giggling
spinning at the swings
their wet thumping
leaving faint impressions on her coat
shivering bundles drag
gear up the hill
now we see them, standing
...
1 tag
Small Stone #6
For Nancy
Two smiling queens
crimson and plum
take shade under a rainbow
under the sky,
one white cloud.
1 tag
Small Stone #5
Round white belly on a red
red couch.
2 tags
Small Stone #4
“Anatomically Correct” Baby Doll
She rolls into the front room like a wave
in one motion, removes his diaper, drops it on the floor.
Now here she comes, on a two year old’s mission.
She points - a questioning look -
I give her the proper names and she nods
approvingly and says, with authority,
“Daddy!”
1 tag
Small Stone #3
Open Mic Night
The man on stage right now
looks like a pencil drawing
of a disheveled Hiter.
2 tags
Small Stone #2
So Pink
Pink polka dots on black pants
Pink shoes with purple fasteners
Pink jacket
So you
Pink
So you.
4 tags
Small Stone #1
Inara’s First Trip to the Movies
In the seat next to mine
is your little stuffed pig
his grubby snout pink and happy,
Daddy’s dot paper notebook
that records the precise coordinates of the notes he takes
with his digital, audio pen,
and one kernel of unbuttered popcorn.
(For more on National Small Stone Month, visit the blog, a river of stones.)
3 tags
For the New Year: Mochi and Nietzsche
It’s been my tradition for some time now to start my New Year’s morning off with this reading by Nietzsche, from Book 4 of The Gay Science:
I still live, I still think: I still have to life, for I still have to think. Sum, ergo cogito: cogito, ergo sum. Today everybody permits himself the expression of his wish and his dearest thought; hence I too, shall say what it is that I wish...
