WHAT IS BETTER?

Photo by S. Auberle

What is better on a hot summer eve than a 47 lb. Rooster?  Cool Salade Nicoise, tiny tomatoes with fresh basil from the pot on the porch, a still-warm baguette from Top Shelf and this fun, cheap and delicious Pinot Grigio?  Here's what the label says:

At the turn of the century HRM (His Royal Majesty) Rex Goliath was a treasured circus attraction.  Weighing in at 47 lbs., Rex was billed as "the World's Largest Rooster."  Our wines are a tribute to  Rex's larger-than-life personality with big fruit forward flavors sure to please.  Bright, juicy and floral --say howdy to our California version of this Italian classic--cultured, but racy and very romantic.  ~  HRM Rex Goliath Winery, Madera, California.

O no, and I'm dining alone tonight!

Photo by S. Auberle

old poem, new photo

LUCINDA’S SYMPHONY 

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wildflower,

hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.

             -  William Blake

My great-grandparents were called

the Plain People.  I never knew them

but for this one story that survives

of Grandma and her piano,

it’s wood burnished like satin

from beeswax applied as often

as eight children and a farm allowed.

The piano sat in her parlor

as she never did,

and children could only look,

admonished sternly if they touched

this sinful object, its music forbidden

by Amish folk on their narrow

path to heaven.

But Lucinda didn’t care.  I imagine

her on a winter day, the parlor icy,

sun shyly touching the piano.

Lucinda’s hands trembling

as she presses one key, softly—

hearing a symphony

in that single note.

PAPA CAN YOU HEAR ME

Photographer Unknown

You're beginning to fade, Papa,

in the photo of you

and Mama and me

but I'm only two years old

and don't see you disappearing

yet.

I still feel your arms

around me at bedtime,

know warm goodnight

kisses and hugs,

breathe the man-smell of you

when you tickle my ears

with your nose.

Tomorrow, Papa,

a picnic please?

Let's go to the beach

where that light is so bright

I can still see

little girls in your eyes...

excerpted from the poem "Invisible" in my first book--
"Saturday Nights at the Crystal Ball"

published by Cross+Roads Press, currently out of print

SCENES FROM THE KEWEENAW

Photo by S. Auberle

Been doing some traveling--one trip up to the Keweenaw Peninsula, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula...we go there as often as we can to drop back to a simpler way of life and be revitalized creatively--this is a selection of notes from various seasons of the year...

SCENES FROM THE KEWEENAW

~  flock of black crows

in field of white daisies

~oatmeal and buckwheat honey

apricots like small, fallen suns

your hands, reaching

~ another summer passing

we wait and watch

for blueberries ripening

~  Brother Raymond

at the Jampot gives us a taste

of marzipan and wild rosehip jam

~  beer at Harbor House

from a brewery first established

in Germany in 1049

~ the subject today

in Babette's Café

is the wind

~  church bells ringing out this noontime

 last night shouts and screams blading the dark

a terrified woman shouting no no no

~  Connie's Kitchen--the best pasties in the UP

her passing parade of diners almost as good

~  through Bumbletown, pop. 48,

down to the Gratiot River where last summer

fields of pink prairie roses bloomed

~  sign on church board--Can today be enough?

yes and yes and yes