it's ok to rest

Uncategorized May 14, 2025

In less than a month my husband and I will begin our pilgrimage across the country to our summer place on Lake Michigan, in a community called Epworth Heights.  When I first started returning to Epworth as an adult, it was for eight weeks each summer.  It felt like a decadent amount of time to retre...

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crucified

Uncategorized May 06, 2025

crucified
            a poem for Kilmar  

I taste the salt in my tears,
in his sweat the bitter taste of blood

I watch him carted away, buried in a tomb,
a prison built to set all of us free.

Separated from his mother,
from all his beloved tribe.

The ground could not hold him;
rising, he released the...

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worthy of love

Uncategorized Apr 29, 2025

Who do you say you are?  Do you identify yourself by gender, by job or by calling?  For instance, I am wife, mother, grandmother.  I am a curator and chronicler of stories, a lover of books and writers and literature. 

Recently I had the opportunity to interview writer Adriana Trigiani via Zoom for...

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blooming bulbs spring forth

Uncategorized Apr 23, 2025

Each year I forget about the bulbs
lying dormant in the earth,
the ones I planted years and years ago,
a secret stash of buried treasure.
Suddenly one morning there’s a frenzy
of yellow daffodils—botanic fireworks.

Purple hyacinths follow
arriving fully formed from under
the winter ground;
I’ve never even ...

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best friend

Uncategorized Apr 15, 2025

You are my best friend,
and I hate to leave you,
which one day I shall have to do
unless you leave me first.

These are the eventualities of life:
the long solo walk
the journey we can only take alone
the yearning for a hand to hold ours
the darkness with no candle
to light our way.

In spite of this, my ho...

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the face of the marginalized--hands up!

Uncategorized Apr 08, 2025

 

“The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”  Psalm 103:6

Righteousness can be defined as being set apart, in particular, set apart by or for God.  Sometimes justice demands set-apartness.  When the scales have been tipped in favor of one group of people over another, then s...

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word jumble

Uncategorized Apr 01, 2025

Words come tumbling, jumbling out,
a collection of random letters
spoken into the unhearing ear;
and, while I try to keep my wordcount
to a reasonable roar, there are more,
there are more and more and more. 

   Will you hear me; will you listen
   though I speak without precision?
   Will you sort through...

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in the company of beautiful women

Uncategorized Mar 25, 2025

A week ago, I sent my cousins back to their respective homes in Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas and Oregon.  It was a bittersweet parting after five glorious days together.  We did a little sight-seeing, hot-tubbing, playing cards and dominoes.  We shopped for groceries together and took walks in ...

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bathroom hook

Uncategorized Mar 18, 2025

I have a strong desire to help people, particularly those that I see making self-destructive choices…choices that not only take them into places that make their own lives harder, but also impact others as well, including me.  I’ve had incidents when I can so clearly see someone is being hampered by ...

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irises

Uncategorized Mar 11, 2025

Their heads are so large and heavy.
   It’s a wonder that their slender
stems can hold them up, even when
   buffeted by a strong spring breeze.
But like the lilies of the field,
   the irises are maintained by the
perfect design of their creator
   who is in the business of
doing death-defying tricks.

Why...

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