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
I know where my tax rebate is going. I had planned to save it or invest it, but I just stimulated the economy by spending every penny on a complete system of prescription-only skin care products that promises to make my face flake, peel, redden, and look wrinkly. But that’s just the first phase. After…
I drove from Berkeley to Big Sur this week, determined not to go faster than 60 mph. I had just paid for my first $4 gallon of gas and it freaked me out. I just can’t imagine spending $60 every week or so to fill my 15 gallon tank. And I know that one great…
It’s not unusual for me to show up at work and find bird things on my desk — photographs, books, newspaper clippings, feathers, nests. My office is avian chaos, but I don’t mind. It’s touching when the people you care about know what you love and bring offerings from their wanderings in the world. Yesterday…
Who cares if you don’t have a say in this year’s Oscar race for Best Picture? You can exercise your voting muscle in the 2009 Bookseller/Diagram Prize awards for the most bizarre book title of the year. This annual contest kicked off in 1978, when the winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on…
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…
March 19 is a very special day. It’s Mo’s birthday! Okay, so it’s my birthday, too. But for several years, I was blessed to share this day with Ms. Moreka Jolar in a magical spot on the island of Moloka’i. When Mo is in residence at Hui Ho’olana Retreat Center, she manages kitchen and garden…
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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. :-)