An Italian-American Writer & Poet with a Yankee Outsider Perspective
All the bridges in Venice are pedestrian–it’s a city without cars. Yet, the map shows only a few–the Rialto and the huge bridge crossing the Grand Canal before the railroad station. But how do people get across? I asked myself, … Continued
When I met my husband, he had been out of prison nearly 20 years–the federal prison in Springfield, Missouri, where he was sent as a pacifist during the early days of the Vietnam War. Soon after he was freed in … Continued
I, who had only a single pregnancy and never wanted another, am far from one to talk. But there was a girl in my college class who went to New York for an abortion. In the details I heard, it … Continued
While northern Minnesota is straining for a flash of white, ready to send a shot into the woods, I’m driving east and south into rolling farm country around Afton where glimpses of the St. Croix River shine through the trees. … Continued
Oral History came of age for the general reader in the United States with Studs Terkel’s various volumes–Working, Hard Times (about the Great Depression) and The Good War (World War II). Published between 1974 and 1985, these works of oral … Continued
We’ve just turned our clocks back. I never can remember which we acquire with each spring/fall maneuver–more or less light, morning or evening. But waking in the dark as I usually do, winter or summer, I send filaments of light … Continued
Last night I attended a “reading” of works from the recent issue of Water*Stone, published by Hamline University’s MFA Program in Writing. Since I’m an occasional teacher in the overarching program called Graduate Liberal Studies, I have a stake in … Continued
I like to think the gaps between generations are not defined (in the U.S.) by technological changes, but so they are. My adorable, 94-year-old Cousin Eleanor teases her 40-something gynecologist that she not only remembers radio and newsreels but pre-radio. … Continued
If you stare across the lagoon from the northern edge of Venice, the world seems an immense roil of waves, tongues of land lapping out of them, and sky contesting above for prominence. In the Cinquecento, 1500s, with only candle … Continued
She’s been a favorite of mine for years, but in the last decade my appreciation has deepened. She’s become a moral guide. Item: in Pride and Prejudice, the configuration of family energy focuses on Mrs. Bennett and the two younger … Continued