The years we lived in Cambridge by June Beisch first, in the apartment on the Charles River where the sycamores shed their skins to reveal a patched nakedness, a pied sensuality, then high up on the sixth floor in a grand apartment filled with English antiques and a grand piano. But when we found the […]

Mr Daley by W.S. Merwin Mr Daley could whistle between his teeth but just the one phrase over and over it was in the good old summertime and it made my mother sniff and shake her head as he pushed the big wooden spoon around and around the pot of flour paste he was mixing […]

A Clearing on Ruth Island by D. Nurkse The child sees the firefly off in the tall pines. It’s very late. I did not expect another summer, another child, so much darkness. She trots away to catch it. Possibly nine minutes later, she lopes back, barely winded. There is the light in her cupped hands. […]

Forethoughts – Buying a Farm by Jonathan Greene We thought we knew what we wanted, put earnest money down the day we first saw the farm (fools rush in). We wanted to be on water, and this has three-fifths of a mile of river frontage. Did not know we’d be here for five of the […]

Our Parents Stephen Dunn Our parents died at least twice, the second time when we forgot their stories, or couldn’t imagine how often they craved love, or felt useless, or yearned for some justice in this world. In their graves, our parents’ need for us is pure, they’re lost without us. Their honeymoon in Havana […]

Optimism Stephen Dunn My friend the pessimist thinks I’m optimistic because I seem to believe in the next good thing. But I see rueful shadows almost everywhere. When the sun rises, I think of collisions and AK-47s. It’s my mother’s fault, who praised and loved me, sent me into the dreadful world as if it […]

Dismantling the House BY STEPHEN DUNN Rent a flatbed with a winch. With the right leverage anything can be hoisted, driven off. Or the man with a Bobcat comes in, then the hauler with his enormous truck. A leveler or a lawyer does the rest; experts always are willing to help. The structure was old, […]

Seventy-Two is Not Thirty-Five by David Budbill I spent seven hours yesterday at my daughter’s house helping her expand their garden by at least ten times. We dug up sod by the shovelful, shook off the dirt as best we could; sod into the wheelbarrow and off to the pile at the edge of the […]

Learning the Bicycle By Wyatt Prunty For Heather The older children pedal past Stable as little gyros, spinning hard To supper, bath, and bed, until at last We also quit, silent and tired Beside the darkening yard where trees Now shadow up instead of down. Their predictable lengths can only tease Her as, head lowered, […]

Excerpt from “The Prelude” by William Wordsworth When from our better selves we have too long Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, How gracious, how benign is Solitude! —Hermit Deep in the bosom of the Wilderness; Votary (in vast Cathedral, where no foot Is treading […]