Beside the bank where black swans often lie
in twos, beneath wild fruit trees near the stream
where Chinese geese move single file across
the water like a strand of flags that gleam
with little angled feathertips of light,
I heard her speak. It was a quiet voice,
like summer clouds that weep along low hills
of poplar groves then peacefully rejoice
in [...]
Déjame que te cuente cómo me compré esta casa
Verás
Habíamos visto ya cuarenta y nueve pisos en dos meses
Algunos vacíos
Otros recién abandonados, con frascos de colonia
Aún expuestos en el baño y un añejo olor a tabaco
En las paredes desconchadas.
Otros seguían repletos de vida, con fotos enmarcadas
Mientras tú intentabas prestar atención a la chica de la inmobiliaria.
Era [...]
Victorian Violet Press editor Karen Kelsay, a frequent contributor to WIZ, sent this announcement:
Victorian Violet Press, an online poetry magazine, is seeking submissions for the December issue. Please check out the magazine to get an idea of what type of poetry is published. You can find the magazine here.
Guidelines: Our taste in poetry is eclectic, [...]
For a larger view click on the photos.
Ancient chipmunk hole below the pin oak
This burrow has been used for many generations of chipmunks.
Early moonrise in my backyard
Taken in Pennsylvania
View of the Kiskiminetas River through a stand of trees, springtime
Taken in Pennsylvania
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Elizabeth is thirteen years old and enjoys writing and photography. Capturing the magic and beauty [...]
April’s beauty carries with it rain
Wet tear drops falling from the sky
Its premier today, showing up shy
Sliding into slits in buds
Mixing itself with different muds
Slipping down my forehead
Touching my eyelashes ahead
I close my eyes to nature’s gift
While they were closed I did drift
To the month of May’s sweet, sweet scent
To view flowers and green is [...]
Mormon Artist Magazine has published a fun interview they did with me for their current issue. I’ve not often been interviewed–just one phone interview where I wound up misquoted–so I appreciate Mormon Artist’s interest in my work and attention to detail during this process.
The pics accompanying are unfortunately not as fine as I’d like, but [...]
“Look, here’s Fezzika,” my mother said, bending down to point out the Woodhouse toad tucked under the garden stone. We had discovered the amphibian’s house a few days earlier, and I was fascinated by the placement choice. She had dug into the soil under a cornerstone edging the flowerbed beside the main path through the [...]
Narrator: It was a sunny day in the town Pudding but no one could see it. There was a cloud in the way of the sun.
Boy: I can’t see anything!
The mayor: We must do something!
All: But what?
Town folks: Ask the king!
Mayor: Not the king!
Boy: That is a good idea.
Mayor: The king does not rule the [...]
School’s out—at least for kids in my neighborhood. In theory, this means they’re outside more, turning over rocks, taking pictures of what they find with their camera phones, using their iPhones to run a quick Internet critter identification search, engaging in texting one-upmanship (bgz r gr8), so on and so forth.
Okay, maybe they’re not doing [...]
The usual warnings continue to apply. Parts One and Two here and here.
April 22, 2010, Earth Day and M’s birthday. Twenty-four hours have passed since the doctor put his words out there. I’m still hot with anger and grief, still breaking into sobs at the slightest twinge of thought. I’ve examined M repeatedly for signs [...]