Though it’s all one world, when we close our eyes to the outer life, we open our eyes to the inner life, and we are made to blink so we can live in the one true world. Read more

Dig something you think might last from the earth and wedge the air from it. Then clean the wheel, the one which spins on its side, the one which goes nowhere. Slap the clay on the wheel and sit forward with your legs firmly planted. Brace your forearms against your thighs. And wet your hands. Let the wheel spin. Keep your hands steady against the clay which wants to leave the wheel. Though it feels like the wheel is shaping… Read more

It could be the letter never answered, the one in which you declared your love in such a tender way, admitting to every- thing. Or when the shell you brought all the way from the Philippines is dropped by some loud stranger you never wanted to show it to in the first place. It could all unravel the moment the shell shatters on your floor. Or on a summer bench, your eyes closed, your fear about to vanish, the heat… Read more

This is the world of Grandma Minnie, the Brooklyn of my youth so full of unknown wonders and windows as far as I could see, out of which countless heads would lean and call for children I didn’t really know. But the open windows everywhere made me feel we were all connected, made me feel that each living room washed into the next. I would sit on the cement stoop and watch one drama waft into the street and mix… Read more

I couldn’t keep the damn glasses clean. Kept wiping them and curs- ing them. And my left ear was get- ting worse. Those across the room were shouting secrets behind a water- fall. But I wasn’t ready. Kept wiping the damn glasses. Kept trying to make sense of things I couldn’t hear. I didn’t feel stubborn. And I want so very much to see and hear. Then after a long un- folding, the cocoon my soul was eating through gave… Read more

How this ache stops me, old teacher that it is. Often on the way home when the wiper won’t clear it away. Or after a call with a friend who longs for something he can’t quite name. After utter companionship, not knowing what to say, when everyone has gone to bed, and the moon has stopped being shy, I put my tongue on the table like a paper weight and walk wordless through the night. The place where beauty meets… Read more