For Patrick

For my big brother's birthday, I thought to write him a poem. As I post this, I'm reminded of a New Yorker cartoon, in which Shakespeare is sitting with a very unenthusiastic-looking woman. The caption reads, "Gee thanks, another sonnet." 

For Patrick

That time at the pool party

some mean kid held me

under the water

on purpose,

I was scared,

drowning,

when you grabbed me,

swiftly pulled me up

to the air.

I remember

lying on the wet cement,

possibly after being chest-pumped,

at least coughing water,

half-dead.

You saved me.

My big brother,

the alpha sibling,

you’ve always been

looking out for me.

From my first day,

on earth

I’ve adored you.

But as my

actual hero

I still revere you.

Poetry Garden, Seattle Center

A Gift of Perspective

A Gift of Perspective

~ To My Father On His 70^th Birthday

    September 3, 2016

Holding tight to your neck

riding on your shoulders,

this panarama of the universe

in McKennan Park from

oh-so-high is my earliest

memory. Feeling safe yet

exhilarated and very special

to be carried aloft by you.

From up here a new wide

vantage point on everything.

I was two maybe, who knows,

but the sensation remains

even now forty years later.

You, father and friend,

taught me a way to see

life through a lens

of kindness, generosity,

enthusiasm, good humor,

optimism and confidence

as you did.

I came to learn

not everyone views

the world like this.

When, if tallying up

accomplishments in a life

deeply-lived thus far,

you may have some regrets

and disappointments

as any human will,

please know

you have given a daughter

this perspective;

in fact all this
ravishing world.

May Your Soul Be Cool

My mother was visiting over the weekend and she and I slipped away for a few hours to go see the Mood Indigo exhibit at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

I have been looking forward to this exhibit as I have three treasured indigo pieces (in addition to my favorite jeans): an airy maternity dress I still love to wear, a cloth I carry with me as a park/picnic spread my sister-in-law Rebecca brought me from Senegal and a tablecloth made in India that I found at Maiwa in Vancouver.

We wandered among the many and stunning textiles, reading about each piece. In addition to finding great quotes from Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Tom Robbin's Jitterbug Perfume and Star Wars, I came across this found poem, so fitting for hot August days:

Sacred Shawl (Ulos Ragidup), ca. 1900

Cotton; warp resist (ikat): supplementary

weft; natural dyes including indigo

Indonesian, Sumatra, Batak culture.

Sacred honor is bestowed 

whenever this type of shawl 

appears in Batak communities. 

It is a technically remarkable cloth 

with complex iconography 

that carries great significance. 

Wrapped around the shoulders 

of a person in transition 

(at weddings, for pregnancy, 

and other life changes), 

it invokes speeches by chosen 

people whose great knowledge 

enables them to carefully 

observe the cloth and divine 

a way to enhance the wearer’s 

future. 

May you partake of the fat of the fat of the land.

May you find a wallowing hole with no leeches.

…a clearing with no mosquitos.

…a grazing spot with no gnats.

may you be like the bamboo growing in the mountain valley.

No wind to bend its growth.

May your soul be cool.

…Seven generations free of catastrophe. Health! Coolness! Long life to all of us!

Engagement

Engagement by artist Dennis Oppenheim

Christian proposed to me in November of 2009 when we were living in Vancouver. We sent an email announcement to family and friends:

Christian and I joyfully announce our engagement to be married!  

We are unofficially "eloping" to the butterfly-shaped island of Guadeloupe in early December. We look forward to a wedding celebration in the spring or early summer.

He proposed on November 11th after a beautiful walk through Stanley Park. The ring he gave me is a family heirloom of 18K gold with rubies and diamonds which his maternal grandfather gave to his wife.

This sculpture is currently on display nearby for the Vancouver Biennale. The piece is very aptly named "Engagement."

Love,  

Christian and Sarah

Last week, while back in Vancouver, our two children played pretend baseball underneath the sculpture. How incredible to see time fold and unfold like this, visibly.

A Gallimaufry

Excited to see my poem in print, in the company of some fine poets, in this beautiful new edition of A Gallimaufry by Nonvella Press!

Guest Book, Gabriola Island