January 2011

In the rush to get to work

January 28, 2011

I am driving to work on an early Spring morning. I have gone through my usual routine: walk out the door, pull it shut behind me with cup of coffee in hand and computer bag over shoulder. I head towards my car, unlock the passenger side, put my coffee in the cup holder, put my [...]

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A virtual philosophy of money

January 11, 2011

What is money but trickery and obfuscation? Money is untrustworthy and shadowy, elusive and shape-shifting. Who really knows what its worth? Perhaps it is obvious I have never understood money. So this is a piece about what I know about money in an attempt to pin down something positive and useful about this currency that [...]

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When push comes to shove

January 8, 2011

I am sprinting to the station nearest my office to catch the train to a meeting in the East Bay. It is late in the afternoon, just before the rush but the carriages are already crowded with commuters, people leaving work early and many of them carrying bags of brightly wrapped gifts since it is [...]

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Song of the Sea

January 7, 2011

Clinging to some wreckage From one end of a boat Holding tight onto this thing It’s keeping me afloat Broken twisted memories Strange contorted shape At least it isn’t sinking My head’s above the wake All astern, me hearties Hold on tight Drift with the current Drift through the night This journey is not known [...]

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The world awaits

January 3, 2011

I decided to move to Adelaide when I was 22. I am not sure why other than I was offered a job at an advertising agency there. I worked for Young & Rubicam Adelaide for a year and, one night, sitting up at the bar in a restaurant, I met my first husband. He was [...]

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An education

January 2, 2011

Not long after I moved to the United States at the end of 1990, I took one class at the local community college, The College of Marin. When I filled out the application form, I was asked about high school and, since I had not graduated from high school in Australia, was required to take [...]

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Life and surprises

January 2, 2011

The other night, I conducted an experiment amongst some of my friends. There were four people I told individually I had written a new poem. It is a poem of which I am rather proud. And not one of them asked me to read it. The closest one of my friends came was to ask [...]

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Stay, let go or both

January 1, 2011

I went back to Australia several times before my mother died and we continued to talk frequently on the phone when I was not there. Her cancer returned during that time and there was little to be done, since the efficacy of Tamoxifen had worn off and there were no other alternatives. Every time I [...]

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