A soft lead pencil, a fingertip — the brush a mind,
the mind a memory, memory a fallen flower.
Canvas 565 — June 28, 2015
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We do not know what we will be called upon to do.
And it is not unusual at all that we do not know we are doing it.
Canvas 537 — February 19, 2015
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Canvas 537
Of Lives and Letters
All too often, those of us who call ourselves writers speak of the books we read as if their very mention were an indication of our learning, depth, and worth. I speak about them because I love them, knowing full well that even after they are read, I will be at a loss to explain the profound or mean effect they have had on me, my understanding, and my thinking. […]
You Think You Know Yourself
The assumption that it’s difficult is what makes it so. But then, so does any assumption at all. You Think You Know Yourself You think you know yourself — then comes a word, a phrase, a night, a moon, an oak in rust on a time-worn hill, leaves, twigs, and cloud-debris, horseless riders faceless until they swing right in front of you — did you dream them or did […]
If It’s a Heart You’re Looking For
My secret today is a passage I read very early this morning. Or is it the moon, a day past full, that lit the dark night of your longing? June 19, 2019 If It’s a Heart You’re Looking For If it’s a heart you’re looking for, the child cried, take mine. I’ll grow another, and a better, and a bigger. Then the child died. And the child’s words came […]
Still and Again
The towhees around our house are quite friendly. Not only do they not avoid me, some seem downright eager for conversation. Within just a few feet, they stop and look at me, then hop about in the ferns and moss and rhododendrons without wariness or alarm. Late in the afternoon two days ago, while I was watering the hostas not far from the birdbath, a male with beautiful markings alternated […]
July Rain
The art of making it rain, I learned from my father. That I am here to explain, I learned from my mother. July Rain Dying is such old work — I settle the dust in our yard with a hose. Poems, Slightly Used, July 5, 2009 [ 423 ]
Sky-Song and Maple
First light and fine lace — our love is a maple, my dear. Sky-Song and Maple Sky-song and maple, so-goes the riddle, summer-lap and old-toes, soft-breast and all-she-knows, you in the middle, light-glows, water-flows, night-long the bell-tolls, the dew-rose, the cradle. Recently Banned Literature, June 19, 2014 [ 422 ]
A child makes a few marks and is showered with praise.
“Such promise! I’m amazed!”
A grown man must be famous, dull, or refined.
“What is it? Why is he wasting my time?”
Canvas 1,235 — June 15, 2019
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Canvas 1,235
A Little Less Certainty
The grapes are in bloom. And everything else a child knows, but cannot tell. June 13, 2019 A Little Less Certainty My philosophy? a little less certainty — yes, like a kiss that might never be, so sweet to savor, you see, once in the way and the sway of it, the light and the day and the play of it. Even alone, had you and I known the […]
William Michaelian 