A few years ago, a slim volume at Borders jumped out at me. I don’t know which caught my eye first: the jacket photograph — depicting a man’s sand-dappled shins from the POV of their owner, who’s reposing in a beach hammock — or the title, The Importance of Being Lazy. I’d been giving the subject some thought even before spotting the book. That is, wondering if I’d ever have enough free time to put on my lazy pants. The subtitle extolled what I was lacking: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacations.... Read more

In memory of John Lennon

Ice on the trees like diamonds
breaks them, some of them,
usually the weakest
but now and then one
that, reaching maturity, is just at the stage
when all sorts of shapes are possible.

When the causes of those shapes,
like storms or overgrowth of other trees that fall,
are so quickly gone, so ill-perceived and unremembered,
the surviving tree bears witness:
beauty grows from adversity
and is sustained by luck.

Knowing the chancy nature of things we look for meaning
when the expression or utterance
of their being is all we can humanly do... Read more