19 June, 2015

{poetically plagiarized} 29: Lighthart


The Second Music
by Annie Lighthart

Now I understand that there are two melodies playing,
one below the other, one easier to hear, the other

lower, steady, perhaps more faithful for being less heard
yet always present.

When all other things seem lively and real,
this one fades. Yet the notes of it

touch as gently as fingertips, as the sound
of the names laid over each child at birth.

I want to stay in that music without striving or cover.
If the truth of our lives is what it is playing,

the telling is so soft
that this mortal time, this irrevocable change,

becomes beautiful. I stop and stop again
to hear the second music.

I hear the children in the yard, a train, then birds.
All this is in it and will be gone. I set my ear to it as I would to a heart.


"The Second Music" by Annie Lighthart from Iron String © Airlie Press, 2015.

Thanks again to Lauren for always reminding me that poetry matters. 

16 June, 2015

Peds to Parents

I've been neglecting this blog lately! I promise more writing here over the summer. In the meantime, I have a new project to share...I'm writing a series on health literacy for the Upstate Peds to Parents blog, focusing on how parents and caregivers can better read and understand research, particularly as it's presented by mass media outlets.

Check out the first entry in the series here: http://blogs.upstate.edu/pedstoparents/2015/06/16/dont-believe-everything-you-read/


13 June, 2015

A tree grows in Steamboat Springs 2

Aspen trees (and others)
Strawberry Park Hot Springs, near Steamboat Springs, Colorado
October 2009