For me, the most worthwhile poetry is that which reaches out and connects with a great number of people, and this one, by Joe Mills of North Carolina, does just that. Every parent gets questions like the one at the center of this poem.
Some days I keep thinking of all the things I need to get done, then I forget what they were. If I hope to get anything done, I have to make a list. I actually love making lists, but more importantly I love crossing things off a list. I even write down things I’ve already done just so I can cross them off. It makes me feel productive.
Naming stuff is hard. John Lennon used to say that he had a dream in which a man on a flaming pie came down and told him that he should name his band The Beatles, with an “a”. Paul McCartney said that the guys in the band were big fans of Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets so they decided to name themselves after an insect too, but change the spelling of it so that it would have the musical term “beat” in it. Lennon’s story is probably untrue but, I think, considerably more entertaining.
I have officially declared this a good week! A good week is directly determined by how quickly I finish the laundry.
I don’t have space to pile laundry as I, quite literally, only have a “laundry hall.” It is a hallway between the kitchen and the master bath.
When I was a little boy, the fear of polio hung over my summers, keeping me away from the swimming pool. Atomic energy was then in its infancy. It had defeated Japan and seemed to be America’s friend. Jehanne Dubrow, who lives and teaches in Maryland, is much younger than I, and she grew up under the fearsome cloud of what atomic energy was to become.
Rainier Youth Choirs will be performing at the Kent United Methodist Church Saturday, May 21 at 2 p.m.
I opened my extra freezer the other day and there was a dinosaur frozen in time. I’m not referring to any sort of historical discovery where I would need to call in a paleontologist. I’m also not referring to my lack of housekeeping skills and food left frozen so long it became dinosaur-like. I am talking about a small plastic dinosaur, frozen in a plastic container of water.
I love poems that take pains to observe people at their tasks, and here’s a fine one by Christopher Todd Matthews, who lives in Virginia.
The Maple Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra is finishing up its fourth regular season and is celebrating with a concert.
Hold on to your hats, quilters, a new quilt shop is coming to historic downtown Kent. According to Alice Marshall, owner, Running Stitch Fabrics is slated to open May 3.
The Kentlake High School production of “The Phantom of the Opera” runs April 14-16, 21-23 and 28-30.
The production will be presented at the schools preforming arts center, 21401 SE Falcon Way, Kent.
Northern Departure plays accoustic, bluegrass and folk music. Performance starts at 7 p.m. with sign up for open mic starting at 6:30. Open mic will follow Northern Departure’s performance.
The city of Maple Valley announced a ground breaking ceremony is planned for the Maple Valley Town Square project, which is anchored by Fred Meyer.
There’s that saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and as Paige Dunn found out, having a village around you is just as important for the mom.
Dunn, who had worked as an actress before having her son Hayden in August 2009, lives with her husband Reagan — who is a King County councilman who represents the Ninth District which includes Covington and Maple Valley — just outside of Maple Valley these days.
The Tahoma High School Wind Ensemble participated in the Green River Music Educator’s Regional Wind Ensemble Festival March 23 and scored three superior ratings.
The band, conducted by Matthew Cole, the district’s newest band director, played “Signature” by Jan van der Roost,” Song for Lyndsay” by Andrew Boysen and “Jericho” by Bert Appermont.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, TigAIR Blood debuted on the corner of Southeast Wax Road and Maple Valley Highway.
An air band made up of Dace Anderson, Arielle Young and Kassidy Ulmer, the group rocked out as commuters made their way home, with drivers honking and even a few not so friendly gestures.
We who teach creative writing have been known to tell our students that there is no subject so common and ordinary that it can’t be addressed in a poem, and this one, by Michael McFee, who lives in North Carolina, is a good example of that.
Parents and even grandparents of children who ride in car seats should take note of new safety recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
With potentially life-saving implications, the new policy, published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, says toddlers should ride in rear-facing car seats until age 2 or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat.
Maybe you have to be a poet to get away with sniffing the paws of a dog, and I have sniffed the paws of all of mine, which almost always smell like hayfields in sunlight. Here Jane Varley, who lives in Ohio, offers us a touching last moment with a dear friend.
Renton Technical College culinary student Krista Nakamura has been awarded Washington State Junior Chef of the Year by the Washington State Chef’s Association.
The 19-year-old from Maple Valley won the silver medal at the junior chef competition put on by the association in August 2010. Just recently they presented her formally with the medal at the Columbia Tower in Seattle in an American Culinary Federation meeting.