Author Archives: Carol Merwin

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning While my guitar gently weeps With every mistake we must surely be learning Still my guitar gently weeps* My guitar didn’t weep, but I did. My mistakes were legion. When … Continue reading →

I complained to my husband Ralph that flies are hard to swat, and asked him why he can do it, and I can’t. It’s a blow to my independence to have to ask for help. I wanted to know if … Continue reading →

Sometimes it’s good to take a day off from getting things done, bettering yourself, examining your history for clues and causes of dysfunction, making a to-do list and then measuring self-worth by checking things off. Take a day off from … Continue reading →

There are only 3 stories I was ever told about my birth. The one pertinent here is that my mom noticed right away I had pointed ears and told everyone at the hospital I looked like Peter Pan, but what … Continue reading →

The Covid pandemic has meant more time spent at home, so I’ve been taking some writing classes. Sometimes I ask myself why bother, there are so many extraordinary writers, what do I have to offer. But a writing teacher told me there … Continue reading →

Inspired by reading Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table, a collection of essays from the New York Times, I cast about for a food memory and recipe of my own to share. I have very little to work with, … Continue reading →

From Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights, 51.Annoyed No More: At the Afghan restaurant today I identified in myself a burbling in my reservoir of annoyance when I realized that people were going around the buffet in the … Continue reading →

One way adoptive parenting is easier than biological parenting is illustrated by a poem I love, that I read many, many times as a parent. It comes from The Prophet by Kahil Gibran. And a woman who held a babe against … Continue reading →

I have needed a living room rug for 3-4 years and today I decided is the day to buy one. After a couple hours of online shopping I’m hit with a depressing downward spiral of negative self-talk that shocks and … Continue reading →

I am always yammering on about getting out of my comfort zone and going for a stretch. For an introvert, during Covid restrictions, this means poetry. Something I’ve never done and never thought I’d do. After registering for the class I … Continue reading →