How long in a cold room will the tea stay hot?
What about reality interests you?
How long can you live?
Were you there when I said this might be real?
How much do you love?
Sixty percent?
Things that are gone?
Do you love what’s real?
Is real a … Read the rest
Meeting
He had been after me for years to come to his AA meeting. “You don’t have to say anything, just listen.” he assures. Thanks, but no thanks. To someone deeply committed to the program, this is a declaration of denial.
A true believer can spot a fellow addict … Read the rest
Asking for More
“I am not asking to suffer less.
I hope to be nearly crucified.
To live because I don’t want to.
That hope, that sweet agent—
My best work is its work.
The horse I ride into Hell is my best horse
And bears its name.
So, friends, … Read the rest
Good Bones
“Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this … Read the rest
Whether
“Bundle up, it’s gonna be a cold one on Saturday!”
My parents obsess about the weather. They may call me for some other reason, but at some point one of them will volunteer the weather report. It’s not based on wisdom collected from decades of observing nature. No, this is … Read the rest
Gloucester 2017
In August I took my girls to the beach for almost a full week. I promise myself to be present, to be here and to be now, not to dwell on either the recent past or near future.
I love being at the beach and all its sensations implicit and … Read the rest
It needn’t be tinder, this juncture of the year,
a cigarette second guessed from car to brush.
The woods’ parchment is given
to cracking asunder the first puff of wind.
Yesterday a big sycamore came across First
and Hawthorne and is there yet.
The papers say it has to happen,… Read the rest
Words …
“That we rode harder into the wind,
That the story got told,
That the broken candies were eaten first,
That they were eaten last,
That all subjects grew extinct eventually,
That in the inn I ruined our lives,
That in the barn I tried to save them,
That I failed,… Read the rest
Swiftly Tilting Planet
If you can’t help yourself, help someone else.
That was at least part of my reasoning for buying tickets to see the Dead. The last time the band came to Boston, I ended up escorted out of the show by security. This time, things would be different. I’d be doing … Read the rest
In Her Defense
So, you want to hear the story about what happened, right?
I shrug. It doesn’t matter what I want Frank wants to, needs to tell his story. I haven’t seen him in years, so I listen.
He sips from his cup and takes a deep breath.
You remember how I … Read the rest