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is this anything

~ a compendium, by Nancy Coughlin

is this anything

Category Archives: encomia

Henryland now (a poem)

18 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by is this anything in encomia, poem, writing

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Tags

love, marriage, poem, writing

 

fun fair

Henryland now

Waiting for Henryland now.
Piano jazz on the family iPod.
Knowing he might walk in
sometime within this very sentence.

Or this one.

…No, not yet, but soon.

Henryland: a funfair
for middle-aged war vets.
I know shortcuts to the sweetest rides,
I know the thrillingest car
on the stroller coaster.
Total access, free chili dogs,
an all-night ticket. No lines,
no crowd. Just my husband, me,
and Oscar Peterson.

Henryland: my latter-day
reward for taking all those classes.
(This thesis took me
thirty years to write.)

Henryland: my recompense.

And in the yard a gallery
of rusted iron: the broken ones.
We don’t ride those anymore.
(People kept getting killed.)
We should haul them to the dump,
I know, but we’re lazy, and, besides,
they’re cenotaphs. They’re modern art.

Someday I’ll write a poem called ‘How
to Love Someone,’ but this might do, for now.

15 Things (a Mother’s Day encomium)

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by is this anything in encomia

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Tags

family, motherhood, quotation

 15 things I’m glad my mom taught me

take chances frizzle
1.That I don’t have to constantly run around, trying to accomplish things. Lying in bed staring at the ceiling is a valuable part of life too.
2. To eat when I’m hungry, and that eating when I’m not hungry isn’t going to help starving children.
3. That there are so many more important things to do than keep the house clean.
4. That I can love people with all their flaws and contradictions, but I can’t change them.
5. To love myself as much as I love other people.
6. That it’s okay to say no.
7. That wherever I go in life, I can always come home.
8. That no matter the gender, race, or religion of the person I fall in love with, my family will love them as long as they treat me well.
9. That people are their best selves when they have no other choice.
10. That my spiritual beliefs will probably change and fluctuate all my life, and that’s fine.
11. That the media bombards me with messages that I’ll never be pretty enough or thin enough, but I shouldn’t believe them.
12. That normal is boring. All the best people in the world are weird.
13. That I probably haven’t reached the best time of my life yet, and thank God for that.
14. To stop worrying about making a fool of yourself.
15. To take chances, make mistakes, and get messy.

(written by Rebecca Gonshak)

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