Several days ago, I was reading an article about practices that help keep our brains young and memory strong as we age. I don’t remember all the practices, no irony intended, but starting a new hobby you’ll stick with was one of them. Knitting was considered particularly good. Among the other practices researchers touted were … Continue reading Social Ties and a Youthful Brain
Category: Poetry
Behind His Father’s Saying
Wild and Sweet the Words Repeat
As a child and a teenager, I had little memory of a time when the Vietnam War was not raging, a time when the draft hung precariously over the heads of young men, their futures hard to plan. Of course, through the years, many such times have existed. The world can be a dark and … Continue reading Wild and Sweet the Words Repeat
The Poetry of and in November
My November Guest My Sorrow, when she's here with me, Thinks these dark days of autumn rain Are beautiful as days can be; She loves the bare, the withered tree; She walked the sodden pasture lane. Her pleasure will not let me stay. She talks and I am fain to list: She's glad the birds … Continue reading The Poetry of and in November
September’s Resolve
Happy Thoughts by Brenda Ethridge Ferguson In September, I will think only of happy times. I will think of October sunshine and apple picking in the New England countryside. I will remember snowdrifts throughout an English wood at night, reflected moonlight flying up like a magic carpet among the outstretched arms of yawning trees. I … Continue reading September’s Resolve
Talking With Trees
Recently, my husband and I spent a few days in a treehouse. I’d love to claim it was one of those adventurous and romantic houses you or a sibling or a friend built yourself as a child—one you nailed a few boards across on a couple of sturdy limbs and hammered a side to here … Continue reading Talking With Trees
Literary Texas: Sandra Cisneros
I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. —Sandra Cisneros In 2015, Texas State University's Alkek Library acquired Sandra Cisneros’ literary archive. The archive, housed at the Wittliff Collections, includes manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, journals, and numerous other items pertaining to her life and work, a … Continue reading Literary Texas: Sandra Cisneros
O Captain! My Captain!
Today I would like to celebrate Memorial Day by posting a couple of poems by Walt Whitman, long considered one of America’s foremost poets. The following poem," O Captain! My Captain!", was written contemporarily to memorialize the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. I think it is a fitting poem for Memorial Day in commemoration … Continue reading O Captain! My Captain!
Spring
Although fall is my favorite season, spring is none too shabby itself. In fact, when we are blessed with the generous rains we often are in spring, Central Texas explodes into lush greens and bursts into wild blues, yellows, reds, whites, and pinks along roadsides, parks, and throughout pastures. It is a glorious time of … Continue reading Spring
Alone
There are those times in our lives when the crushing throngs around us become too much to deal with, and we seek the calm of solitude or the society of a select few. One need not be a misanthrope to desire the quiet and still, the company of “old dogs and watermelon wine,’ or the … Continue reading Alone
Opening Doors
Not knowing when the Dawn will come, I open every Door, Or has it Feathers, like a Bird, Or billows, like a Shore— Emily Dickinson I It is a blessing to be associated with the Iota Upsilon Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma International, a group of supportive and talented women educators, active and retired, who … Continue reading Opening Doors