Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”
Resting on the page, the word
is as beautiful, it touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from some place distant
as this morning — to cheer you up,
and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing,
that also needs accomplishing.
~ from “The Word,” by Tony Hoagland
Today I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to look for a bath mat. I should have known better. BBB has the power to induce in me a confusion and delirium unique in the world of retail. It surpasses even the weirdness of IKEA. I discovered the trouble with BBB years ago, when my friend…
Here in Fairfax, it’s a hot night that smells like honeysuckle. There are people in this town who look like they haven’t changed a bit since 1972, when I was six years old. These are the long-haired, wide-eyed people of indeterminate sex who come out at dusk to dance in the park, turning in circles…
When I was in law school, I was sick half the time. It usually had something to do with my lungs. I had pneumonia. I had pleurisy. Bronchitis was routine. My close friend and classmate, Roger, was also regularly stricken with nasty bugs. When one of us collapsed under the weight of casebooks and even…
I am a chronic nail biter. I’ve been this way since the fourth grade, when I noticed a classmate biting her nails and thought it looked interesting enough to try it myself. When you’re a kid, a two-second thought can become a thirty-six year habit just like that. Now, the only way I can keep…
The other day I walked into the gym and on the massage sign-up board, someone had written “You Are Beauty.” This prompted in me a huge, instinctive internal eye roll. I was cranky and, even on my best days, I’m not big on affirmations — especially when there’s a price tag attached. But then, when…
Yesterday I asked my grandfather what he remembers about the Great Depression. His clearest memory is meeting a hungry man on the sidewalk and bringing him to the back door of the family home. My great-grandmother fed the man and gave my grandpa a lecture so stern that it’s still with him today. But our…
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thank you
I love this, thank you!
Thank you for sharing this. Good stuff.
Oh my! That is almost as delicious as your jam!
Sweet, Leslie. Thank you for taking the time to visit and read.
Tony Hoagland is my favorite poet on earth, I think. I absolutely love him. We have every book he’s had publishes, and we had his poem “The Time Wars” read at our wedding! I got to hear him read last year and meet him afterwards…one of the highlights of the year for me!
I love this piece that you’ve posted here. Thanks for the reminder (which I often need) to keep what’s important – really important – on the old to-do list. :)
Thanks for sharing that, Aimee. I just found that if you go to this link, you can find an amazing collection of his poems and quotes from people who blog on Tumblr. It’s kind of wonderful.
that is really weird. i left a comment on here when you first posted. now it’s gone.
you moderated me! ;-)
Look, look, there it is! For some reason, Akismet thought you were spamming me. Bad, bad Akismet. I would never moderate you, so I’m glad you came back and said something. :-)