by Laura Parker Roerden Small things sometimes call us home, like the two birds I saw circling the hay field this morning on my way back from farm chores. Their shrill vibrating whistle, a half warning, half invitation stunned me awake from a deep dream—even though I should have been sufficiently awake from an hourContinue reading “A Small Poem”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Into the Clearing
by Laura Parker Roerden All day long I had lain in the grass and waited for the sun to reach the clearing, though it never did come. The dew from the morning had left my hair damp to the touch; my heart aching for something I had never expected to miss. I knew these woodsContinue reading “Into the Clearing”
Stitch by Loving Stitch
by Laura Parker Roerden My grandmother darned socks. A good farm wife, she knew any tear could be mended, the original wound transformed into a caesura, a brief pause held by the conductor to grab our attention, to show us meaning that hovers uncomfortably in a void. Or into a sharp, an intentional accident inContinue reading “Stitch by Loving Stitch”
A New Morning
Love this world like a tent staked into hallowed ground, one tempered blow of a hammer at a time. The tent might rise or fall with the wind, become soaked in the rain, or provide less warmth than needed at times. But still there will be moments when you awake to dew, refracting morning light inContinue reading “A New Morning”
Cosmology
by Laura Parker Roerden Something tells me you could chart the path of a heart the way a peacock raises flowers like too many moons. I saw our peacock in full bloom today and noticed the eyes in his feathers expanding like the universe; a quick shudder of his plume suggesting no boundaries to hisContinue reading “Cosmology”
Pelagic Water
by Laura Parker Roerden Go to open ocean, I heard, as I had spent too much time struggling on the edges in the surf. There is only one way to climb out of the grave of a riptide; all lifeguards know this. You must swim parallel in deeper water. You must give up the safetyContinue reading “Pelagic Water”
The Right Whale
by Laura Parker Roerden I’ve heard tales of how they once came close to Cape Cod by the hundreds, a thick layer of blubber enough to insulate for cold, yet insufficient against spears. When dead, they bobbed on the surface like a cork. Or started to decompose as gases expanded flesh like a bloated Macy’s ThanksgivingContinue reading “The Right Whale”
Try Chicken Keeping. . . But Put Away the Blankets and Towels
by Laura Parker Roerden Best Investments in Sustainability Many of us have seen movies like Food, Inc or others and learned horror stories about the antibiotic and hormone laden poulty coming out factory farms. Yet buying chicken and pastured-eggs at Whole Foods can be quite expensive. If you care about your food and where itContinue reading “Try Chicken Keeping. . . But Put Away the Blankets and Towels”
A Love Letter to Baking Soda
by Mary McDonald Best Investments in Sustainability My first encounters with baking soda happened, of course, in my mother’s kitchen. Whenever my mother was getting ready to bake, it was my job to help her gather all of the ingredients. Cinnamon, cloves, sugar, vanilla, baking powder,baking soda. I had no idea what baking soda did,Continue reading “A Love Letter to Baking Soda”
Fire and Ice
By Laura Parker Roerden I hate spring. It feels freeing to admit that. When you live in a cold clime, there is too much social pressure to triumph spring’s return as if it were the 2nd coming of Jesus Himself, sliding in on a gaudy skateboard wearing a magnolia wreath and tossing chocolate coins toContinue reading “Fire and Ice”