I’ve been feeling stuck lately. Writing with these little magnet words seems less daunting than facing a blank journal page. I’m going to use this little poem as my mantra. It makes me think about ordinary things in a creative way. The p sounds go good together. This recurrence of similar sounds is called consonance. I … [Read more…]
One of my favorite pictures of Mom with her grandsons, Kevin, Chase, Jim, and Kyle. I wanted to re-publish this obituary for Mom since I have been thinking about her a lot lately. April 19th will be one year since she passed. Published by Legacy Remembers on May 13, 2024. Written by daughter, Vickie Toboni … [Read more…]
Grandma and me, 1980 The poem below from my book, Undertow, is about my grandmother, Betty Friedman. In 1925 she married my grandfather, Morris, a Merchant Marine electrician, who traveled overseas for several months out of the year. Being a hardworking and independent woman, she had no trouble managing the affairs of her household alone. … [Read more…]
While searching my files for a short piece to read at our writer’s club Christmas party this year I came across this story I wrote in 2009. A good reason to save my old files. James Toboni’s old fishing lure given to his son, David Toboni. A Christmas Guest It’s a week before Christmas and … [Read more…]
For a gift last year, I received a magnetic poetry kit, and I’ve been having fun posting short poems and displaying them on our refrigerator. Then I decided to take pictures of them and post them on Facebook. I like how Facebook asks me what’s on my mind. Sometimes I’d rather not say which is … [Read more…]
It’s a busy summer for the recreation department in Yountville. No school so what is there to do? I wouldn’t have thought that going to the library would be at the top of a grade schooler’s list, but I’m happy to say I was wrong thanks to an event arranged by Marianne Lyon along with … [Read more…]
Mom Lala, Chase, and me Three of us, Dave, our son Chase, and I, went to Windsor recently to visit Mom at Brookdale, a senior living facility. We planned to have lunch in the building’s dining room. Colleen Lala (Yes that’s her real name and she loves music) is 96. Amazing! However, she’s on hospice … [Read more…]
When I wrote the poem below, which is published in my book, Light the Way, I was thinking about having lunch with three friends I had met in a writing class several years ago. Once a week we had gotten together at a restaurant downtown. We talked about many things, writing projects, our families, and … [Read more…]
I entered a competition recently, the 2023 Bookmark Story Contest, sponsored by Yountville Arts, Friends of the Yountville Library and the Napa County Library. The contest was inspired by Ernest Hemmingway’s famous 6-word story, Baby Shoes. Fellow writers at the time had challenged the author to write a story using only six words. My challenge … [Read more…]
Undertow is the title of my first collection of poems, a chapbook comprised of 20 pages that I published in 2011 with the help of a local print shop, Copy Corner. That was 13 years ago. It was difficult to choose the poems for this book, but I had encouragement from my critique group at … [Read more…]