Making Something Out of Nothing by Nancy Schatz Alton you, clutching your rifle in thin fall snow, are an instrument of some vital love. –Emily Van Kley I feel not so vital lately even as the world proves me wrong: bylines, loving daughters, a husband who makes me breakfast the way I pull words […]
Author: Nancy Schatz Alton
Love’s Recovery
Love’s Recovery by Nancy Schatz Alton I don’t let go of the hot August sun. It sears rejection in weary concrete. I do turn to my daughter’s request. I wash her chlorine tangled hair in our kitchen sink. She leans back, mimics the beautician’s parlor, bright blue washcloth under her tender neck. She and I […]
Listen
I’m looking for where the smile is easy while still trying to drop the baggage. If only it were as easy as releasing pretend suitcases. I know the cost of clenching: holding fast to what no longer works. It’s amazing how my brain circles hovers is that how a hawk hunts? Are birds of prey […]
Listen
Listen by Nancy Schatz Alton I’m looking for where the smile is easy while still trying to drop the baggage. If only it were as easy as releasing pretend suitcases. I know the cost of clenching: holding fast to what no longer works. It’s amazing how my brain circles hovers is that how a […]
Flip & Fly
Flip & Fly by Nancy Schatz Alton I want to kick my legs up into a headstand maybe a handstand flip over into a backbend my friend’s hands catching me the lawn green my breathe fast, alive no years looped in tunnel-snags oh, strange corroded pathways, mysterious brain. I want to stand on the […]
Sentiment for Hair Dryers
My hair dryer is a fire hazard. I find the smallest tool; try to clean out the lint. There is no cleaning out the lint. The small things weave into me, how if I can edge out the small dust particles until the holes are clear, this hand-held miracle will be restored to full power. […]
Why
Shhhhhhh…I figured out a secret. Is it the secret? Come closer. Or not, because I like to shout. I’m not going to change. While continually changing. So much of me wants to keep throwing profound statements at you. But I’m looking at a Carl Richards drawing that says: WHY. Why do you do the things […]
Julio
Julio By Nancy Schatz Alton I am pressing the blankets of our days into the box of dirt. I am watching you shovel the dirt onto the Cash & Carry box. What did I carry into the house with this box? Olive oil, ground coffee, baggies, 2000 baggies. You carry the box out with precious […]
Connection Saves Us
I didn’t think I’d be so tired today. I forgot how much space holding grief takes up in a body. Maybe that sounds like language that’s too something, but yesterday my dog Julio died on my watch. Roughly a few hours after Chris and I decided to put him to sleep later that day, I […]
Night Wakings
Mothering: Age 16 by Nancy Schatz Alton The night waking evolves & it’s almost like a miracle to be needed by you even as I’m still figuring out how to make it up as I go along. This parenting is like a run-on sentence with no grammar fix because if I pile up enough words […]