Diane Ackerman

Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret.

Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret.

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived
just the length read more

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived
just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as
well.

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at read more

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

Smell brings to mind... a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern read more

Smell brings to mind... a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years.