WOMEN’S WORK

"I'm not being facetious or anything, but I think I've never said this before: for a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, you know a lot about traditional 'women's work'." Gary had just asked me how a damask tablecloth should be washed and so I told him. (The key is pressing it after washing with a very hot iron …

POETS RESPOND

Yesterday morning the serious rains began and we were both soaked by the time we got home from our walk. Thunder was impressive by the time we went to bed, though we did not often see the lightning. RATTLE is a poetry journal that emails poetry each morning, including a weekly response to a current …

52 WEEKS + 2 DAYS

Full moon over the ocean. I assumed that a year was precisely 52 weeks, but had never done the math. That is odd for a lot of reasons, mostly because I was always good at arithmetic and algebra and geometry etc. I worked figures in my head back when I was running regularly in my …

RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility or do I mean guilt? How I suffer for my mistakes. Regret. The I-shoulds or merely owning-up? I second guess myself a lot. I question my own motives and spend more time doubting myself than feeling confident I have done the right thing. I mean to be fair. I hope to be kind. Always. …

MISTRAL

It's been many years since I took a class from Ursula K. Le Guin and in one of them she talked about the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. She was incensed at how little work of hers was available in English. After all, Mistral was a Nobel laureate, and her work was important. Le Guin had …

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

This is the largest "sea nettle" I have ever seen, dwarfing Gary's size 13 shoes. It was at least 28" across—Gary said three feet. We've been busy hustling back and forth, walking our 25 miles a week (and me running a few of those), working on our second home, and admiring everything we see. I …