hazel eyes like oak leaves and acorns: our daughter crisp breath and crunching, I rake piles prongs scrape, scour, scratch the earth’s back in October, birch leaves flutter – gold coins from the sky maples sway, dangling rubies in the sun with pink cheeks, a red nose, I comb earth’s grassy mane an oak leaf … Continue reading Haiku from the leaf pile
I was working the register at Barnes & Noble here in Christiansburg, Virginia the other day, and since it was dead, and since gift card season is about to begin, I browsed all the fancy card designs to pull samples to show customers. There are new ones out with snowmen, and winter scenes, as well … Continue reading The grandaddy of all gift cards
“RESEARCH OFFERS HOPE FOR THOSE SEEKING DURABLE BOOST IN HAPPINESS.” That’s the title of an article I clipped from the paper this summer. I don’t think I’ve ever clipped a newspaper article, but I saved this one. Because in this piece, I learned the secret of people who are able to sustain happiness after an … Continue reading Durable Happiness
The house is silent. My coffee cup warm in my palm. Our son is sleeping across the hall, snuggled up in his warm bed, our daughter snoring upstairs. My husband’s head is buried under a pillow to muffle the sounds of floorboards creaking, of the bathroom doorknob rattling, the roar of the hairdryer as I … Continue reading In the quiet of morning
It was a damp, drizzly day here in Blacksburg, fuzzy cloud blankets snuggling the mountain tops. There was no direct light, just a gray, overcast sky – a perfect backdrop for the saturated colors of slick, wet leaves, dripping and mostly green, but with October pops of yellow, orange, and red. And a perfect diffused-light … Continue reading The heft of an old Minolta
It took me ten years and two tries, but I’ve finally done it. I have finally read Moby Dick. I don’t know why this was the one classic that I felt I could not miss, despite trying once and giving up after about 200 pages. Maybe it’s because I grew up on the Atlantic coast … Continue reading Slogging through Moby Dick
Butterfly Mind 