The Wasteland – Catherine Hamrick

Out of the Wasteland: Spring Unfurling

April arrival-chamrickwriter-pink spring bloom

T.S. Eliot popped into my mind today. After all, April begins. He called it the cruelest month. However, today my thoughts drift to two powerful lines that open Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Drink in the wonder. Change does not always necessitate pain—it can be beautiful. Embrace the season. Whan that Aprille […]

Estimated reading time: 41 seconds

My Other Blog: Random Storyteller

Chattahoochee Song #3: Autumn Coda, Winter Wondering

I once wandered far to find a foreign autumn That would suit the notion of what I missed— Cold, clear color bursts, as if shot from paint tubes Of finessed acrylics for lazy painters, But dinner-plate dahlias spun portrait pink and soulless Against a Maine-clean sky, their perfumeless ardor, Wafting, seducing ecstatic tourists Finger-blind to […]

Thank you, Mom, for your simple song

Yet I remember the constant of my mother’s life. What would she have said about the stream of articles and newscasts that warn of tribalism cracking apart lifelong relationships at the Thanksgiving table? I imagine a sensible answer: “That’s a choice—to allow the fear, grudges, insults, and cruelty of the disgruntled to violate home and hearth.” All her life, she forgave those who hurt her—with the gentle capacity to truly let go.

Fall Leavings

Canada comes, Cooling the Blue Ridge leaf by leaf, Bronze, copper, and scarlet flame While the morning moon burns white in blue. Umber splotches rosy dogwood, And birds snatch at candy-berry clusters. My face upturns to catch the sun’s glow Through lidded eyes. The wind stirs twigs and branches, Brushing leaves back and forth, And […]