I’m reading one poem a day. That’s how I read poetry. Otherwise, if I read poems back to back in one sitting, they all run together, and I don’t remember a single one. I wish I could eat my guilty pleasures that way. But with doughnuts, I have no discipline. Potato chips? Same. So, I’m…
Writing in the time of COVID-19: Day Nineteen
Last week, a friend on a walk along a coastline saw a bird and texted me: Friend: Do shearwaters have a super big wing span? White underneath? Dark brown? Me: About three-foot wingspan. And they nest along the coastline. Friend: I’m watching these huge brown birds fish! I think bigger than 3 feet! Diving and…
Writing in the time of COVID-19: Day Eighteen
Last week, this adult monk seal died. A female. She was 14, in the prime of her life, and a really really good mother. She’d pupped the past seven years in a row, producing healthy seals, six of which are still alive today. I’ve witnessed many deaths of Hawaiian monk seals over the dozen years…
Writing in the time of COVID-19: Day Seventeen
When Eric and I were young and innocent, we honeymooned on Kauai. While here, we surfed, snorkeled, hiked, and beached it. We boated, helicoptered, and attended a luau. Most surprisingly to me, we also bought a one-bedroom time-share unit on Kauai’s north shore. It may not have been the most prudent decision for a young…
Writing in the time of COVID-19: Day Sixteen
When we first moved to Kauai, we lived in a cottage-sized home atop a hill along the coast. I remember lying in bed at night with the ocean as background noise and suddenly hearing a wave crash onshore. “The swell has arrived,” I’d say to Eric. It was an auditory way to learn about the…
Writing in the time of COVID-19: Day Fifteen
My friend Wendy invited me to join a worldwide Facebook group called, “What Do You See Outside Your Window? #stayathome.” I suppose it’s meant to create fellowship while sheltering at home, a virtual alternative to what Italians are doing when they sing together from their balconies. I posted this iPhone photo that I snapped yesterday…
Writing in the time of COVID-19: Day Fourteen
I saw it again today, in a headline, a publication using an albatross as a metaphor to imply something negative, something long-lasting, something bad. Here’s the thing: An albatross isn’t a burden. Oh, sure, there’s Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner and that business with an albatross around a sailor’s neck. But it ended up…
