Author Archives: Dale Hobson

As we teeter on the brink of the election and a third peak of the pandemic, it’s the little ordinary things that stubbornly remain ordinary that I find so discombobulating. Given the tumult of event and emotion, there should be … Continue reading →

On this day, the official COVID-19 death toll in America hit 213,000. It could have been any unimaginably large number, but was this. I wanted to capture indirectly the feeling of waiting and grief and isolation, of anxiety too long … Continue reading →

In my Facebook feed the other day was a picture of muppets from Sesame Street saying “The year 2020 is brought to you by the letters W, T and F.” Too true. In my Tai Chi class, we start by … Continue reading →

When times are dark and seem to be getting darker, sweet pastoral reflections feel a little disingenuous. Waiting Room Each of these lines contains five silent prayers, accent falling on the silence. Rhyme scheme is irregular as nothing is similar … Continue reading →

Here is an occasional poem I wrote back in 2011 as a table grace for a GardenShare event in Canton, NY. GardenShare is a locavore organization that shares the bounty with schools and food pantries, etc., and promotes sustainable agriculture … Continue reading →

Life is full of complicated questions, seemingly impervious to solution, no matter how you clench the jaw or chew the pillow. The mind backs up like bad plumbing. Everything starts to smell a little funky. Luckily for us, every now … Continue reading →

Staying home is light duty when compared to the daily round of danger faced by health workers and all the other essential neighbors who live fully exposed to the coronavirus pandemic. But even light duty gets old after long enough. … Continue reading →

I remember how eagerly I used to listen for the school closings on WPDM when I was a kid. Will it be a snow day? I think my father, being a teacher, listened with similar anticipation. A snow day was … Continue reading →