Johanna is my son Josh’s peer, a Blue Mountain School alumni, Floyd High School salutatorian, a young German-born woman that many of us here in Floyd watched grow up. She’s getting married on the summer solstice. Forgoing a wedding shower, or even the traditional Floyd Blessingway, she requested a Machitun, a shamanic drumming healing ceremony. [...]
Washington D.C. has it’s cherry blossoms. We have forsythia bushes. They surround our porch, casting their buttercup glow, their 100 watt sun-loving gold, and wide-eyed early spring bloom. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be wearing sunglasses.
People who work at home Don’t answer the phone At least not right away Do I need to pick up? Call you right back? After the beep have your say Post notes: Better yet send me an email or leave a comment. “The Poet’s Hotline” HERE.
1. Have you ever thought of getting a “13” tattoo, taking a picture of it and using it for a Thirteen Thursday header? 2. According to THIS test (compliments of Kenju), I’m 76% addicted to blogging. 3. If that isn’t bad enough, I think I’m even more addicted to online research. After typing number 1 [...]
When my husband recently wanted to buy some composted manure the whole idea of gardening was ruined for me. He was tired and it seemed convenient, but I was aghast. “There’s manure free for the shoveling all over the county,” I complained. “If we’re going to be buying manure, we might just as well not [...]
It’s the only place I drink tea and wine at the same time. The Winery was where I first discovered sachet pyramid tea, and I look forward to sipping it whenever I’m back. I usually don’t order wine because it tends to make me feel tired, but Sweet Mountain Laurel is different. Light, sweet, with [...]
~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on March 27, 2008. Those monthly Scrabble games I’ve been playing with friends at the Café Del Sol have paid off. I was one of three players from our informal group representing Floyd in a Scrabble Tournament to benefit the Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke this [...]
All Over Again
This time he brought his trash pincher, purchased from the Dollar Store. With his pincher in one hand and his white cane in the other, he walked up the dirt road off the Blue Ridge Parkway like he meant serious business. Because his eyesight is limited, I called out the alert when I spotted a [...]
1. Said to my friend Rosemary at Spoken Word Night while holding my amber Anchor Steam up to the light: “I think it’s funny that I love tea and beer and they’re both the same color, which makes me wonder if it’s really the color I love.” 2. Last weekend Joe had to take a [...]
When the Café Del Sol Spoken Word chair is “off-duty,” it sometimes hosts unexpected guests that aren’t necessarily poets, like those on their home to Boston from a car show in Florida; my sister Kathy and her husband Ozzie. Waiting for my grandson to be born Alternative to Scrabble
AKA: Play One for St. Patrick It was Mara (center) who typed out our mission, described in thirteen parts and titled “Procedure for Scrabble Poem.” Part 1: Play a game of Scrabble with Colleen, Rosemary, and Kathleen on St. Patrick’s Day at the Café Del Sol. Wear Green. Joke about whether you are Irish or [...]
There was lime green, kelly green, olive, and teal represented at the third Saturday Spoken Word Night, two days before St. Patrick’s Day. Even the sign-up sheet that our master of ceremonies, Alli, held as she announced the readers was green. Alli – standing in for Café Del Sol owner Sally, who we were told [...]
At a library book sale in a 25 cent book I found my first four-leaf clover It was an unlikely answer to a curious search while browsing for wisdom through musty print I opened the cover a fortune cookie cracked how sweet was the news the destined chance Faintly green still spending its luck a [...]
1. The Tin man’s hat 2. Rumplestiltskin’s moonshine jug 3. Peter and Wendy’s shadows 4. Three wishes granted Post notes: Photos were taken on a fairytale walk in the neighborhood with Joe this past Sunday. The flower, one of the first signs of spring, is coltsfoot.
1. I’ve come to accept that I’m never going to remember how to spell words like Renaissance and restaurant on my own, no matter how many times I write or type them. 2. Intriguing old Appalachian country names recently discovered and added to the list I keep: Men – Burnace, Vent, Talmadge, Enoch, and Elinos. [...]
When my Asheville potter son, Josh, was a baby he had a shirt that said “Good as Gold” on it. At first I thought it could refer to his towhead blonde hair and his baby innocence. I later came to think of it as a premonition for his infectious enthusiasm, his ability to attract good [...]
Death is associated with murder or disease, pain and dread. What would it be like if we didn’t die? Would we appreciate the time we have and use our life well? Existentialists think death is what gives life meaning. Susun Weed says that sometimes death is the cure. My friend Alex Wind, who died in [...]
