A Song For Juneteenth

As I write today, it is “Juneteenth,” the national celebration begun on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger led Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas and announced that both the war and the scourge of slavery were over.  This date gives me pause, leading me to reflect on its joyful creation as well as…

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Tails Are Wagging in the Daffodils

Spring arrived yesterday with the vernal equinox. Two daffodils and a yellow and a purple crocus have popped up in the small, curved garden alongside my driveway. Every year, I have the same surge of hope for the new season, with all its blooms and possibilities. But today, it is rainy and raw, and those…

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Fires of Winter

I’m happy, once in a while, to send you a poem I find meaningful. The sonnet below is intended to help us look at the inner “fires” of winter. Written by a poet who was friends with Emily Dickinson, it displays obvious similarities to the latter’s work. If you haven’t read anything by either of…

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Illumination from Blackwater Woods

Here is my favorite poem of all time–particularly apt at this time of year, as autumn takes over our world. It uses an incredible metaphor that speaks to living your life with authenticity. God bless you, Mary Oliver. Yours,

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Autumn’s Light

Autumn came bright and early that year. My toddler and I wandered down the sidewalk over a carpet of leaves, one that created a riot of color crackling under our feet. I held his hand as he balanced himself, precariously, on a low stone wall. Periodically pain streaked, low and mean, through my belly. For…

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Waterfalls of the Sun

I haven’t been a devotee of poetry for over forty-five years now. My mother’s death did me in as a reader and writer of this often-enigmatic genre, making it impossible for me to enjoy the short mysterious lines studded with similes and its exacting attention to language. Poetry became too painful; too much of a…

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A Writer’s Song

Many people believe that the writer’s life is an enviable one. In some ways it is. In other ways, it is also a bitch. To be able to set your own hours, work at your own pace, answer to no boss but yourself is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for obvious reasons,…

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Trading Blizzards For Blossoms

It’s cherry blossom time in Washington, D.C., and many visitors will descend upon the city to see the famed annual unfolding of pink and white petals. I live in nearby Annapolis, and though it’s my first year here, I know that the prolific opening of these blooms means that all of us can rejoice. Springtime…

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Sharing A Gift

Sometimes I come upon something special that I would like to share with the people I care about. This week my newsletter is a poem, written by one of my favorite poets, which captures so much of what I feel as I journey through my life: day by day, month by month, year by year.…

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