Author: Kate DiTullio
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This Shattered World Holds Wonders Yet
I drove the New Hampshire seacoast route in my friend and COVID podmate’s car last week. We had gone to Portsmouth for the afternoon and decided to take the long way back. The sun had already set, but we had a bit of light to see by. Enough that we indulged our decidedly Romantic natures…
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“We Will One Day Dance Again”
I turned and steppedIn the music’s sway,Face to face and holding handsWith a young man at my university.You’re a good follower,My ballroom dance partner told me.You have no idea, I replied.Many years have drifted pastSince I last danced With a partner,And now—there is no safe dancing.I cannot drift and mingleAs the music plays.I must protect…
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On Living in a World That Has Octobers
From L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 16: October was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green,…
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“There Is Nothing Lost”
In 1759, ten years after she died in childbirth, the physicist and philosopher Émilie du Châtelet published her magnum opus, a French translation of Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, along with her own commentary. Of course, Châtelet’s work was actually published by her friend, mathematician Alexis-Claude Clairaut, due to her death as well as her…
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On Time, and Dreams, and Beauty
One hundred and fourteen years ago, a man named Bancroft was looking to retire from the bustle of a career in the military and public service. He bought land in Groton, Massachusetts, and set about building his retirement home. The reasons he chose to build a bungalow with a European-style castle tower on the crest…
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“Spring Laughs”
Where I come from is gloomy in the winter.The blanched landscape gives no hintOf the underground life Patiently waiting for its rebirth to begin. Perhaps not as patiently, we wait,Warming ourselves with combustionAnd lighting our way with artificial lightAs we listen to the earth groanWith the effort of its tilting That brings us closer to…
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“Outdoor Play Time, 29 April 2020”
The tilt of the Earth brings us closer to the sunWe call it the spring in the northern hemisphereMy mom on the porch reads a book to her grandsonWhile we wait with impatience for the governor’s “All clear” My nephew plays with sticks and a dead bug in the dirtHis babbling a welcome redirection from…
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The Fort
Pouring rain makes it so we can’t take my nephew outside today. He sits in my mom’s lap, listening to her read books about tractors, his favorite topic of conversation. It’s too bad. His grandparents have a new ground-level fort for him to play in. You have to duck under a fir tree’s blunt needles…
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Dirt Jewett
“I’m from a pretty rural area,” I tell my new acquaintances. After a polite pause, I elucidate: “Half of my parents’ street is dirt.” Eyebrows raise. Appropriate expressions of surprise are uttered. And my childhood home is thus explained in one or three words: Rural. Dirt road. They’re not bad words, but they don’t give…
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“Staying at Home in April 2020”
Dull in the distance,Charred logs and dim embersWait for our company.It arrives in the evening,As plants and animals Settle down in the chilly night air.Tulips close their blossoms.Hyacinths yawn.As the crocuses fadeInto the twilight,A match ignitesThe carefully constructed log cabinIn the fire pit.Sparkling light replaces sunAs we gather together,Feasting on marshmallows and chocolate.
Kate DiTullio | Teacher. Traveler. Writer. 