Category: Memoirs

Remembering Fiona Glover, Queen of Glover Gardens (2010–2025)

Remembering Fiona Glover, Queen of Glover Gardens (2010–2025)

A tribute to Fiona Glover (2010–2025), our regal, funny, fiercely independent calico who ruled Glover Gardens with wit, affection, and attitude. From feral kitten to queenly companion, her life was a master class in curiosity, courage, and love. She was ours—and we were lucky to be hers.

Imprinted Like Fossils on Our Hearts: Remembering Tracy

Imprinted Like Fossils on Our Hearts: Remembering Tracy

A deeply personal tribute to my childhood friend Tracy on what would have been his 62nd birthday, reflecting on our shared roots in Gilchrist, Texas—a town erased by Hurricane Ike—and the indelible imprints left on our hearts by those we love. This remembrance honors friendship, loss, and the echoes of childhood that never fade.

Of Fish Tales and Childhood Spells: A Quadrille for dVerse

Of Fish Tales and Childhood Spells: A Quadrille for dVerse

A quadrille poem for the dVerse prompt dives into the tales that shaped me—Puff’s fading magic, Gulliver’s sharp satire, Jonah’s stubborn faith—and the beachy wonder where I first heard them. Fish, wish, and childhood spells: stories that still shimmer like sunlight on the water.

The Thief: The Murder of Hope

The Thief: The Murder of Hope

Poetry and prose have helped me process the shocking, gut-wrenching loss of a precious, unique, complicated person: my brother.

Old Hat, New Hat: Childhood Beach Bonds Remain

Old Hat, New Hat: Childhood Beach Bonds Remain

A story of a hat and a shared sense of identity borne of innocent and playful times spent with friends while growing up at the beach.

Food is Love, I Know Food, and I Know You

Food is Love, I Know Food, and I Know You

Heart-felt culinary love prose in response to the dVerse Poets Pub prompt. Food is my love language… what’s yours?

Negation Poem: Beach Life Childhood

Negation Poem: Beach Life Childhood

My childhood at the beach is a constant muse for poetry and a guide for how to live, an everlasting gift from my parents, who chose to leave suburbia for a life on the coast that would their children to be children and their lives to authentic and grounded in nature.

Frank’s Chili Recipe: A Comfort Food Classic

Frank’s Chili Recipe: A Comfort Food Classic

A tried-and-true family heirloom recipe for chili that gets a very subtle kick from the not-secret ingredient: white pepper. No beans in this rich, red meat stew. Bonus track: Harvell family stories and memories.

Prosery: Voicing the Names with Her Eyes

Prosery: Voicing the Names with Her Eyes

Love speaks even when the person can’t. For Mom.

Haibun: Our February Circle of Life and the Snow Moon

Haibun: Our February Circle of Life and the Snow Moon

February has been a circle of life month, punctuated by the rejuvenation of the yard with spring’s early onset, birthdays at both ends of the spectrum, and the end of a life journey.

In Memory of Leland Eugene Glover (Gypsy Gene)

In Memory of Leland Eugene Glover (Gypsy Gene)

Obituary for Leland Eugene Glover, a wanderer and industrial electrician who loved the Yankees, his family and his lap dogs. RIP, Gypsy Gene.

Mortality: They Will Conjure Me

Mortality: They Will Conjure Me

A poem about ripples reminding of those days of cooking and wine, stories and trust, laughter and imagination, acceptance and love.

Labor Day Recipes, Remembrances and Reflections – Oh, My!

Labor Day Recipes, Remembrances and Reflections – Oh, My!

Tossing out my anchor for this Glover Gardens 2023 Labor Day all-over-the-place ramble, with memories of rollicking good times and barbecue, family trips and dolphin sightings, recipes and Jimmy Buffett.

Pumpkin Spice Blend Bird Seed? Are You Kidding Me???

Pumpkin Spice Blend Bird Seed? Are You Kidding Me???

Pumpkin spice is a thing, a social movement, a gotta-have-mine-it’s-October pull of nature almost stronger than a biological clock, but geeeeez, trying to project that onto poor birds seems like a Big Bad Bird Wrong

I Wandered Lonely and Now Remember Daffodils

I Wandered Lonely and Now Remember Daffodils

An example from another poet helped me break through writer’s block and honor my grandmother’s passing 2 years ago today.

One Hombre is No More: Goodbye and Thanks for the Memories to Dusty Hill of ZZ Top

One Hombre is No More: Goodbye and Thanks for the Memories to Dusty Hill of ZZ Top

Remembering Dusty Hill and how he and ZZ Top were part of my childhood.

100 Years, 1 Month and 1 Day in this World, and Now Dancing with the Daffodils

100 Years, 1 Month and 1 Day in this World, and Now Dancing with the Daffodils

A remembrance and a haiku for the intrepid little lady we lost, Ruth Violet Hiatt Holt.

The 100 Club has a New Member: Happy Birthday, Grandma!

The 100 Club has a New Member: Happy Birthday, Grandma!

My grandmother is 100 today, a bona fide centenarian. Wow!

suicide regrets: i missed the nuances of your decline

suicide regrets: i missed the nuances of your decline

A poem dedicated to my brother, a victim of suicide, who suffered in silence. Call the suicide prevention hotline at 800-273-8255.

Stormy Weather: Reflections and Musings on Hurricanes

Stormy Weather: Reflections and Musings on Hurricanes

Remembering storms whose names have spawned headlines and headaches, headstones and heartache, hardships and heroism. And wondering, why do we have to name storms after people? Why not use diseases or the periodic table? Or colors?