June 26, 2022 How do other people bear what you are still afraid of? The answer is that when big things happen you do go through the looking glass, but it is still you who goes through, the inner text is all still right to left, so you just keep reading. ~Jennifer Michael Hecht, Steady, […]

June 24, 2022 Oh, I could hide ‘neath the wings Of the bluebird as she sings The six o’clock alarm would never ring… Oh, what can it mean To a daydream believer… ~John C. Stewart, Daydream Believer   I half-jokingly texted a friend, “I’m scraping up gratitude for the even keel of my life.” This […]

June 11, 2022 I’m finding my focus moving evermore inward. Still keeping track of happenings, through what I consider reliable sources, but in a mostly passive way. Emulating the idealized 1950s middle-class American housewife, I’m happiest while making home and family comfortable, secure, and last but not least, prettied up. Purchasing a few trinkets. Doing […]

June 6, 2022 Is that all there is, is that all there is If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing Let’s break out the booze and have a ball If that’s all there is ~Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Is That All There Is?   I can’t get that Peggy Lee […]

June 4, 2022 think of writing as a process, a never-ending, infernal process, and now the boats have become jammed together, bow against stern, stern locked to bow, and not a thing is moving, only our diligent pens. ~Billy Collins, Writing in the Afterlife   A friend commented that my article the other day sounded […]

June 2, 2022 Of the Great World he knew not much, But his Muse let little in language escape her. Friends sigh and say of him, poor wretch, He was a good writer, on paper. ~Howard Nemerov, Epitaph   I just did something monumental, yet it hasn’t made much of a blip on my personal […]

May 30, 2022 Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? ~William Blake, The Tyger   The wind came up again last night. Sudden, like an instant storm. It slapped against the house, slammed doors as it roared between windows cranked wide to […]

May 28, 2022 In some ways, discovering that our physical universe is formed in a completely different way to what we thought is a bit like someone in a Star Trek Holodeck program suddenly seeing a bit of the actual spaceship and questioning their own sense of ‘what is real?’ ~ Richard Gentle  I’ve been […]

May 26, 2022 Some of us are like trees that grow with a spiral grain as if prepared for the path of  the spirit’s journey to the world of all souls. It is not an easy path. ~Linda Hogan, Lost in the Milky Way   I wonder if I’m losing my empathy? I just can’t […]

May 22, 2022 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings… Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark nor ever eagle flew— And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, […]

May 16, 2022 …he says let’s walk up to the field and catch the sunset, and off we go, a couple of aging fools. I hope, he says, on the other side there’s a lot less work, but just in case I’m bringing tools. ~Maxine Kumin, Chores   It’s the morning after the full moon […]

May 13, 2022 Patience must be the charm To heal me of my woe: …a painful patience. ~Sir Thomas Wyatt, Patience, Though I Have Not   Another longtime local retailer, Beads and Blue Lotus, has closed its doors in Santa Barbara. It almost made it to 40 years, which is a stellar accomplishment in the […]

May 11, 2022 …There are worse things than running to catch the train, twisting your ankle… Running to get to or away from? the stranger who helps you up wants to know… Just want the pain to go away, you say, surprised to find yourself reaching for someone else’s hand. ~Timothy Liu, All Trains Are […]

May 5, 2022 And when my ill-school’d spirit is aflame Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win, I’ll stop, and say: “There were no succour here! The aids to noble life are all within.” ~Mathew Arnold, Worldly Place   Once upon a time, we hired a wise and talented gardener to work in our […]

April 29, 2022 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes… ~John Milton, Paradise Lost   Every time I travel Goleta’s main drag, Hollister Avenue, through the far western end of town, it depresses me. Strip malls and big box centers, multistory apartments and condominiums are jammed cheek […]