The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit

CarrieK | September 1, 2010

A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does. An adjective is what describes the noun. In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz” of and with are prepositions. The‘s an article, a can‘s a noun, a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does. A can can roll – or [...]

Words for Worry by Li-Young Lee

CarrieK | August 25, 2010

Another word for father is worry. Worry boils the water for tea in the middle of the night. Worry trimmed the child’s nails before singing him to sleep. Another word for son is delight, another word, hidden. And another is One-Who-Goes-Away. Yet another, One-Who-Returns. So many words for son: He-Dreams-for-All-Our-Sakes. His-Play-Vouchsafes-Our-Winter-Share. His-Dispersal-Wins-the-Birds. But only one [...]

Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road? by Robert Hershon

CarrieK | August 18, 2010

Don’t fill up on bread I say absent-mindedly The servings here are huge My son, whose hair may be receding a bit, says Did you really just say that to me? What he doesn’t know is that when we’re walking together, when we get to the curb I sometimes start to reach for his hand [...]

Bookish links for Saturday, August 7, 2010

CarrieK | August 7, 2010

Author links: ~ Shannon Hale: How to be a writer’s friend (or spouse) ~ Andi at Estella’s Revenge has an interview with Lucy Knisley, author of the graphic memoir French Milk. ~ Beth Kephart: How do you choose the books you are going to read? Discussion starters: ~ Books Lists Life: The problem with series [...]

The Investment by Robert Frost

CarrieK | August 4, 2010

Over back where they speak of life as staying (“You couldn’t call it living, for it ain’t”), There was an old, old house renewed with paint, And in it a piano loudly playing. Out in the plowed ground in the cold a digger, Among unearthed potatoes standing still, Was counting winter dinners, one a hill, [...]

Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon

CarrieK | July 28, 2010

Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as the sun moves down. Let the crickets take up chafing as a woman takes up her needles and her yarn. Let evening come. Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned in long grass. Let the stars appear and [...]

Lending Out Books by Hal Sirowitz

CarrieK | July 21, 2010

You’re always giving, my therapist said. You have to learn how to take. Whenever you meet a woman, the first thing you do is lend her your books. You think she’ll have to see you again in order to return them. But what happens is, she doesn’t have the time to read them, & she’s [...]

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats

CarrieK | July 14, 2010

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because [...]