Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Neighborhood”
And even the mottled, somewhat raggedy witch hazel leaves become a yellow luminescence against the afternoon and its celebration of sky-blue sky. A day to walk, observe, look up, celebrate the riot of color of the so many neighborhood shrubs and trees. A day to rake more fallen browning leaves, to sweep, to wait for the finches and bushtits to arrive for their before dinner dip
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In July 2021, during the ongoing days of the COVID nightmare, a group of us, under the direction of artist extraordinaire Jenny Joyce painted a mural on the side of our garage that faces the alley. I had seen and admired one a few blocks away in the alley that leads to the chickens all of us were so happy to feed during the early days of the pandemic. …
The rains have pretty much arrived here in Western Oregon. And we are in the final stages of putting most of our 400-square foot plot at the Woodlawn Community Garden to bed. Oh, there will be stuff growing over the winter like always—…
Below is a found poem that was part of a Zoom memorial service celebration for a neighbor during the isolating years of the pandemic. I created it from the amazing trove of gratitude posts my neighbor made over the years before she was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer…
We held a neighborhood potluck party today. An utterly delightful (and delicious) afternoon of sharing food, conversation, and laughter. Memories and reminiscences since some of our neighbors have been on these blocks for over fifty! years! New friendships and connections. Lots of glasses raised
In March 2016, I was asked to by the then-director of Alberta Main Street to come up with a proposal for haiku that could be etched onto art benches here and there throughout the Alberta Street arts district neighborhood….
A September Sunday of rain on the long holiday weekend. Harvesting the San Marzano tomatoes at our community garden plot after giving a tour of the garden to passersby…
My poem, “Record-breaking Winter Storm Tableau,” was featured in the April 2023 edition of Concordia News, the monthly neighborhood newsletter. A PDF version of the newsletter is here: concordiapdx.org/concordia-news/concordia-news-downloads. The italicized lines in this poem are from Emily Dickinson’s….
I first stumbled on this small portrait of George Floyd in September 2020, after the upheavals of the Portland pandemic summer/protest summer. It sat by its lonesome on a curb in the Woodlawn neighborhood here in Northeast Portland, making a quiet statement (I thought) every time I walked past…
There were clouds upon waking but blue sky triumphant behind and around them. Then a wind that kicked up as I sat in my upstairs knotty pine room and tried, with some desperation and silliness, to concentrate on words. Afternoon was errands, a Ladybug coffee meet-up, and then back here to regroup.
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