Thursday, September 21, 2006. Written for my mother, Angela Brill Thaler, in 1984, soon after. How their mothers are dead. Except behind the ironing board. And in unfulfilled dreams -. Floating on her back in blue water. She is monumental as mountains. Head on, two cars prove -. She is full of bones. And a good deal of brain.

Friday, November 17, 2006. My family is hugely important to me. New Baby June, born November 14, 2007. In these last fertile weeks of the year. Nico took his first steps. Tiago learned how to read. Leify learned how to talk. Without wings,underwater, while. Leapt into the pool, and sweet.

Driving Cross Country with Andy and Day. Friday, November 24, 2006. So much loss I need to expound about that one. How I at age 42. Swam my way over the breadth of America. With two 13 year old boys. Both alive in those days and we were driving. To see them, but there was in those days. We swam in the Willamette before we left home.

How I Came To Be On Earth. Wednesday, November 29, 2006. One velvet star struck night. In May, near the tiny town. Of Trogan, Switzerland, not so very long. Was finally really over,. And everyone in refugee camp. Was just about worn out. Tiptoeing past the shabby canvas cot. Where my pretty blond sister, Elfie,. Lay sleeping, past the only slightly. Where my pretty dark cousin, Blanca,.

Love Poem with my Grandparents in Mind. Sunday, December 10, 2006. By Joan Dobbie March 2004. We were building a pond together. Bring those stones, you said, here hold this plastic. And as I carried, and pulled, lifted, and lay down,. And you carried and pulled, lifted, and lay down,. Without the two of us. As we sat in our lawn chairs, lightly touching fingers,. Over our statues and stones and.