After ten years of consideration and one year of actual planning, I launched my new side gig this weekend! I am Poet-in-Chief of the Charlottesville Poem Store. Go check it out. 🙂

On a sunny Saturday we hosted a birthday party for a loved one. Soundtrack: Heijera — the entire LP front and back twice. I can never get enough Jaco. We enjoyed lasagna, green salad, and sage and parsley garlic bread elbow to elbow around the Saarinen. In a departure from my usual French drama, we drank Famiglie Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2020, with a nose of sweet leather half-buried in the garden, mouthfeel like butter, and a grape jelly finish. After dinner we walked to the retaining pond, collecting Exceptional Sticks from the woods along the way. ...

Trains pass this house many times a day and sound their horns at the crossings. They blend into the soundscape of birds, wind moving through pines, settling walls. My boy and I have new rhythms and new favorites, new jobs and new home offices. He learns to drive on a cherry red Ford pickup. We spend time with sisters, cousins, and uncles. Our voices echo through empty rooms with bare floors and walls. ...

Sweet, cold air. Steam rose hot and white from our mugs every morning. Space heaters softened the chill. We greeted neighbors, shared persimmons from our tree and pawpaws from theirs. Bought fries on the empty boardwalk but had to pay with cash. Passed rows of headless meters and ducked into stores to stay warm. Read books cover to cover under scratchy woven blankets. ...

Friday morning. Quiet, soul-enriching playlist on Spotify and my hands in the dirt, propagating life in the only way available to me now.

Reboot. Disconnect from work and home, connect to the ground, air, living things. Touch soft moss and cold water. Hear rocks crunch underfoot and the wind sweep across the mountain. Deep healing.