Gambling

This is an apocryphal story in my family: a dad took his family to New York, saw a guy with the cards on a card table on the street, said, “I can do this!” and lost all their trip money in four minutes. Three card monte. “You have a lovely voice,” said the woman to […]

The Sweetness of Venus

Last week I sat at a table with one of my students, I asked what she wanted to do first, she said, “Let’s read these poems.” I said, “I like to read poems three times.” This isn’t true, I much prefer to read things once, like a slob, but I have accepted the wisdom of […]

How Many Stops

Last week, after the Women’s March, I was worn out from marching, and probably from the celebratory drinking we did, too. The day after was hard. What now? I was exhausted and more than a little depressed, and I slept through church. This week, I got to church, where our priest went slowly through […]

Home

Where are we? This can’t be our country. This can’t be home. The United States is freedom of the press, freedom of religion, a nation of immigrants. Thich Nhat Hanh says we are home. Everywhere we are is home. Sometimes this works for me immediately, like water down a dry throat, and sometimes it chokes […]