Eloquence as Legacy
My mother Victoria took prolific notes. Her handwriting was an elegant cursive, quite different from my chicken scratch (that even I have difficulty deciphering sometimes). She penned lovely postcards during her travels. Clever greeting cards with her thoughtfully composed messages and a favorite quote or two enriched birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones of all sorts. She […]
Mutha
I’m so pleased to share two poems that were published today in Mutha Magazine. These two are part of the full-length poetry book I’ve been working on for years. I finally finished the manuscript in January, and sent it out to a number of publishers. Now it’s a waiting game! You can read the magazine […]
Mother
Today I honor the universal quality of benevolent mothering. Happy Mother’s Day to all the women who exemplify mama energy, whether they have their own children or not. You….we…make the world go ’round! Mother You wake in the middle of the night. This is not new. I move dreamlike to your bed, empty my […]
Anxiety, the unwelcome house guest (who never seems to leave).
Agita Sometimes I think there four of us making a life inside this sweet gray house. Add the felines, we make a quirky octad. There is the me who is I poet, I mom, I carer for everything and everyone who moves within this circle–– the him and her, the furniture which claims no […]
A Tale of Two Motorists
Poem for the Pissed-Off Driver I have a third eye that sees beyond your scowl, man-behind -the-wheel who couldn’t bear to wait when I slowed to turn right and so zoomed past, horn blaring, finding just enough time to turn and glare at me, mouth a “F*** you” before roaring off to his Clearly […]
Still, After Years
This is the Love Poem, Mid-Life for Super Guy “Who, being loved, is poor?” –Oscar Wilde Remember the night I woke moaning, ankles on fire, some ghost gripping my arches, preventing even a twitch of toes, a wiggle’s wriggle? You rolled without hesitation from the warmth of our layered nest, cast aside your beloved pillows— […]
The Continuing Saga of Little Stream
A 2022 Story Part 11 You can read part 10 here: https://www.melindacoppola.com/little-stream-an…22-story-part-10 Part 11 “Lily Pond?” Little Stream called out again and again without answer into the bright air. Her voice was thin and tired, and it seemed to blow away in the wind. The long, odd journey she’d been on felt like a […]
Old into New
The Boathouses, Acrylic on canvas by Melinda Coppola Natura Illustratio Nature is a picture book of wisdom and example, an illustrated guide to how we could arrive, and live, and die. Take, for example, a leaf in spring. It draws from mother tree the energy it needs and not a drop more, grows […]
A Hole That Can’t Be Filled
Can you imagine being in such tremendous pain that the best path to freedom seems to be ending your life? Feeling so hopeless or worthless that you truly believe the world would be better off without you? We hear from family and community members and friends left shattered, wondering if anything they could have said […]
Little Stream and Wee Lily Pond ( A 2022 story, part 10)
A 2022 Story You can read part 9 here: https://www.melindacoppola.com/a-2022-story-part-9/ Part 10 It was dark, so very dark. Moonless and sunless. In a tunnel of deafening noise Little Stream’s watery body rolled and pitched and lifted to one side and then the other. Was she right side up or upside down? Then she […]