CiCi's Garden

For me, there’s a difference between maintaining my personal boundaries and drawing the line. My personal boundaries signal self-validation and affirmation while drawing the line can be motivated by changeable circumstances and variables. My personal boundaries are non-negotiable, but I may choose not to use indelible ink when I feel compelled to draw the line. [...]

In my lifetime I have written poetry for a number of reasons. Looking back through a notebook-full of them spanning 50-some years I realize I’ve spontaneously used verse as a release –rhythmic expressions arising from otherwise jumbled circumstances. The poem below came to me in a tall forest overlooking Lake Tahoe. My children were still [...]

The year I was nine my family traveled to Switzerland, my father’s homeland, where we lived for six months with my aunt Liseli in the lovely hamlet of Brienz. The garden in back of our family’s 300-year-old chalet opened directly onto the lakeshore promenade with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. Across the lake glistened [...]