Author Archives

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Agate again

I found this agate on Marrowstone Island yesterday. Very clear and just lying on the sand!

The weather was a bit threatening. I was not sure it would stay sunny and I was not sure I wouldn’t get rained on. I did get a spattering of rain on the way back, but not very much. Good thing too, because I was out without a hat and in my down jacket rather than rain gear. Silly me.

It was a beautiful beach walk.

And why do the seals lie tail up and head up? Are they doing yoga? Are they tired of cold water? Are they sea sick?

That is a second seal in the water. Wondering when there will be room for two? The tide is not out far enough yet!

There were very few other people. I saw four as I arrived and two as I left and that is all.

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Festooned with chains

Last March I was in Europe, visiting a friend from high school who has lived there for years. This building is along the Thames, and you can see how low the tide is.

I found an agate along the Thames too, right away. Just one.

Here are some more traditional festoons:

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: festoon.

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National Museum of Women in the Arts

I took these photographs at Christmas 2017. My daughter and I visited my son and my daughter-in-law in Maryland. We went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It is fabulous. They have been closed for renovations, but I hope they’ll be open next time I visit my son and daughter-in-law.

The Smithsonian is also working on a museum about women and about time, too.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: museum.

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Galatea enjoying apricity

I wandered downtown in the sun a few days ago and thought Galatea does not look cold at all. The sun did give some warmth. This is the Haller Fountain in Port Townsend.

Our Anna’s hummingbirds can overwinter. Tough little creatures and certainly they are not afraid of bigger birds. Meanwhile any sun makes it clear that I should do some spring window washing! This bush is outside my writing window, with the feeder stuck to the window. The hummers will guard it.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: apricity.

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Keep

The older we get, the more we learn
which bridges to cross, which bridges to burn.

What shall I keep?
And shall I burn that bridge before I cross it
or after?
I did not know that was a bridge
I would burn
And I grieve as a I learn
But the sledgehammers and bombs
loosed by the family
have left a bridge
that is all but falling
Into an abyss.
It is stone and old.
It won’t burn, but it barely holds together.
One heavy rock, thrown in the middle
and it will fall
down down down.
What shall I keep?
What shall I let go?

I wonder what my parents think
and grandparents
and sister.
Do they think at all
or do they let go with death
and let joy overcome them
in reunion with the Beloved.
I hope where they are is joy.
It is ok, loves.
It did not turn out well
but people make their choices.
I can’t rebuild the bridge alone
and on the other side they prepare new IEDs to blow me up
if I attempt to rebuild
or cross.

I keep my children away
from the web of triangulation
and so they are not attached to the land
nor do they play the family games.
I am so glad.
I am still attached to the land
and my dead.
Not the living but the dead.
My sister, my mother, my father
grandparents, uncles, aunt.
All the dead.
Forgive me, but I can’t keep the bridge
going
and I will let the land go.
My children and I will be dead
to those living.
We have family and friends
who are loving and not hating
and not cruel.

I still love my dead
and even though the place reminds me of them,
they are not there.
They are in my heart.
I keep them safe
and let the bridge
and the land
go.

____________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: keep.

My sister is paddling the canoe. I took the photograph, in about 1980.

And here is music: