Three Beautiful Things 03-09-2026: Poems About Music, THANK YOU Bridgit!, Family Dinner With a Mexican Theme

 1. Hearing Leonard Oakland read the poem "Those Winter Sundays" on his radio program yesterday sparked my over fifty years long love of poetry to come out of hibernation. As I've written about previously, I tend to focus on one of my loves in life at a time and the others fall by the wayside. I've been on poetry jags, photography jags, movie jags, and jazz jags among others, especially since moving to Kellogg.  About a year and a half ago, I went on a reading jag as I read a list of about twenty books that Leah Sottile posted, books she determined the New York Times had ignored when the newspaper published a list of best books of the 21st century so far. Reading those books inspired me to go beyond that list and read other very enjoyable books, both fiction and non-fiction. 

Over the summer of 2025 and continuing to the present, I've been focused on listening to, reading about, listening to lectures about, and going to live performances of classical music. 

The jolt that Leonard's reading gave me woke me up to the fact that when I was on a poetry jag back in about 2021, I bought a collection of poems entitled, The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology. 

I opened it up today and suddenly felt the power of a marriage made in Kellogg between poetry and my latest, long-running jag, classical music! 

I held in my hands poems about Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, the Schumanns, and others in the classical world as well as poems about jazz, the blues, opera, the music of nature, musical instruments, singing and songs, and more. 

A poem by Lisel Mueller, not in this anthology, has been on my mind for months, but I couldn't remember its title, but I knew it was about the absurdity of the tradition of clapping at the end of a musical performance when, in fact, the silence of being moved and transported would be more appropriate. 

This poem came vividly to mind when I heard the Spokane Symphony perform on February 28th. 

Conductor James Lowe told us after the first piece was finished in the first half of the concert that the orchestra would be playing the next four pieces without a break and that when the last piece, a chorale by Bach (sung by the Spokane Symphony Chorale), he'd appreciate it if we'd be silent until the house lights came up.

It was extraordinary. 

I felt like I was in a cathedral and not having the mood of those four pieces broken by the audience clapping moved me spiritually. 

I wish Lisel Mueller could have been there. 

You'll know what I mean if you go to the bottom of this post and read her poem, "Brendel Playing Schubert". 

(The pianist Alfred Brendel (1931-2025) was a noted performer of music composed by Franz Schubert [among others].)

2. Let me add to BT #1 my gratitude to Bridgit Lacy. When I posted to the Westminster Study Group that I couldn't think of the title of the Lisel Mueller poem, she remembered hearing the poem some time ago on Writer's Almanac and almost immediately sent me the answer to my inquiry. Thank you, Bridgit. You were today's Anne Sullivan in my book. 

3. Our family dinners will be Monday evening get togethers for a short while. Tonight, Carol, Paul, and I came over to Christy's house. She'd organized a dinner with a Mexican theme. 

Carol and Paul brought chips, a warm homemade bean dip, and a veggie plate for our starters.

Our dinner centered around the layered taco salad Christy built and, as a side, I brought a lime cilantro rice dish, something I'd never made before and that turned out pretty good. Christy's salad was terrific. 

I enjoyed two helpings of lemon bar ice cream for my dessert and Christy also offered churros. 

In the background of our dinner, the Zags defeated Oregon State with the sound muted.

We talked a little bit about basketball, but tonight's conversation bounced all over the place, ranging from Christy's home improvement projects to some talk about working out salvation with fear and trembling to Bucky's upcoming one year birthday party on Saturday. 

Brendel Playing Schubert

We bring our hands together
in applause, that absurd noise,
when we want to be silent. We might as well
be banging pots and pans,
it is that jarring, a violation
of the music we've listened to
without moving, almost holding our breath.
The pianist in his blindingly
white summer jacket bows
and disappears and returns
and bows again. We keep up
the clatter, so cacophonous
that it should signal revenge
instead of the gratitude we feel
for the two hours we've spent
out of our bodies and away
from our guardian selves
in the nowhere where the enchanted live.

-- Lisel Mueller

Three Beautiful Things 03-08-2026: First Avenue Coffee, Watching Music Being Made, A Very Good Leonard Oakland Day

1. I drove to Spokane this afternoon to attend today's concert performed at the Fox Theater by the Spokane String Quartet. I left Kellogg plenty early because of wind advisories in the area, but my drive to Spokane was easy and uneventful. 

Having arrived in Spokane early, I had plenty of time to make my first visit to First Avenue Coffee. 

It's a roomy coffee house with a menu jam packed with coffee, espresso, and non-coffee drinks. I arrived having not eaten all day, so I was particularly happy to see an array of pastries for sale.   I ordered a divine apple turnover. Its full name had the word "cheese" in it, but I can't quite remember in what order "apple" "turnover" and "cheese" were arranged on the product card, but I can tell you it was totally worth not to have eaten until 1:30 this afternoon and breaking my fast with this pastry and a 12 oz latte served, not in a paper cup, but in a broad rimmed white ceramic cup. A rarity for me. 

2. The Spokane String Quartet swept me away with their virtuosity, non-verbal communications with one another, and their contagious energy as they, too, seemed swept away by the three pieces they performed. 

The program featured works by Claudia Montero (1962-2021), Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven. 

I loved the variety of this program. Montero's composition captured many of the moods, rhythms, music traditions, and vibes of Buenos Aires, the city of her birth. 

While both Tchaikovsky and Beethoven drew upon Russian folk music within their compositions, for most of their pieces I did not have a sense of a place being brought to life. Rather, both composers in their own ways explored a wide range of moods and emotions ranging from melancholy and even despair to great joy and hope. 

I especially enjoy string quartets and other chamber music because of the pleasure I take in watching the musicians.  I can see as well as hear which instruments are playing what parts. Today I enjoyed being able to use my eyes to distinguish between the first and second violin parts, distinguish the viola from the violins, and tell the difference between the cello and the viola. 

So, for me, going to concerts, no matter the genre of music, is as much a visual as a listening pleasure. I'm not that crazy about light shows and pyrotechnics. My visual pleasure comes from being able to see where the music is coming from. 

3. I had a very good Leonard Oakland day today. (Leonard is a retired Whitworth professor whom I first met over fifty years ago.)

Before I left for Spokane, I streamed his Sunday radio program on Spokane Public Radio, "Sunday Classics". 

Most Sundays, Leonard reads a poem on his show. 

The poem he read today is one I've known for a long time and is one of my favorites. 

It's also a very accessible poem (many are) and I'm putting it up at the end of this post for two reasons.

First of all, it's among the best poems I've ever read about the non-romantic dimensions of love, that most important element of love that Debbie calls "boots on the ground". It's not sentimental, sexy (or sexual), warm, fun, or tingly. As Robert Hayden's poem says, love is often austere, often lonely. 

Secondly, this poem, like many, many other poems, counters the idea that poems are flowery and stocked with inaccessible language. Hayden stocks this poem with everyday language and it's the poem's compression, tightness, music, and focus on things we can see, hear, and feel on our skin that makes the poem work. 

What else made today a great Leonard Oakland day? 

Leonard attended this afternoon's concert of the Spokane String Quartet. 

As I was crossing 1st Avenue, heading south to where my car was parked, Leonard was standing on the southwest corner of Monroe and 1st. I called out his name as I approached him, introduced myself (it had been at least six or seven years since we'd seen each other), and we shook hands and talked briefly. 

Any conversation we might have had was cut short by the fact that Leonard had left his hat in the theater and was on his way back to retrieve it. 

Here is the poem Leonard read. 

Those Winter Sundays

by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house. 

Speaking indifferently to him, 

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well. 

What did I know, what did I know

of love's austere and lonely offices? 

Three Beautiful Things 03-07-2026: Curbside Shopping, Distractions on Saturday Afternoon, Sleep Wins

 1. After picking up an order curbside at Walmart this morning, I'm in good shape for making salads, soups, and stir fries.  I also picked up items for the food pantry uptown at the Elks and delivered them. 

2. My attention gets distracted by things around the house when I listen to The Concert of the Week on Spokane Public Radio on Saturdays at noon and that was true today. But, despite Gibbs barking at anything that moved outside our house (did the wind bend that grass?) and despite some concentrated texting and despite the bowl of lunchtime oatmeal with apple chunks and chunky peanut butter I enjoyed so much it put me briefly to sleep, I heard quite a bit of the replay of the Spokane Symphony concert I attended and loved a week ago. 

3. My hope this evening as I set two wall clocks and the oven clock ahead an hour and got ready to go to bed a little early was that I'd be up and at 'em on Sunday morning in time to tend to Gibbs and Copper, have a morning latte, and get properly cleaned up and dressed to leave house early enough for the 10:30 Eucharist at St. John's Cathedral in Spokane.  

Here it is Sunday morning. 

My difficulty falling asleep last night led to my need for extra sleep in the morning and I surrendered to the demands of my physical self and got more sleep rather than nurture the desires of my spiritual self and head to Spokane earlier this morning. 

I will leave later on today and enjoy the matinee performance of the Spokane String Quartet at 3:00, but worshipping at St. John's Cathedral will have to happen another time.   

Three Beautiful Things 03-06-2026: Rocket Writes a Letter, Friday Yakkin' at The Lounge, Gibbs Likes Broth

 1. When I first met him in South Warren at Whitworth College in 1974, Rich didn't have a nickname. At some point, though, he was christened "Badger". Then at some point (after Whitworth) he became known as "Rocket". 

Today (or was it Thursday?) I was excited to see that Rich "Badger" "Rocket" Brock had sent me a second multi-page correspondence via snail mail. I think Rich would like to hand write his letters, but I'd have to consult with an expert in decoding the handwriting of those suffering from dysgraphia to read them. 

Fortunately, the USPS could read what the chicken he borrowed from a neighbor scratched out as my mailing address on the envelope, so his missive arrived. 

Rich and his wife Amy have now endured two Middle Tennessee winters, winters that have been much more punishing than they expected when they moved from northern California.  Ice storms. Power outages. Snow, Freezing temperatures. Working from home. And soon it will be tornado season. 

I think Rocket's next nickname should be Crockett. 

Like Davy, he's become a heroic Tennessee figure. 

2. Speaking of nicknames, a lot of people around the Silver Valley, especially those who worked with him, know Ed as "Rooster". He's always been Ed to me, but when Ed and I met in The Lounge yesterday afternoon, some greeted him as Ed, others called him Rooster. 

Ed's had his own trials to endure this winter with power outage and a backed up sewer system, but none of that was on the table today. We yakked about current events in our lives, including our loss of Bruce "Lars" Larsen on Monday. 

Ed had a good evening ahead of him. Spaghetti awaited him at home and after a couple of beers, he mounted his horse and galloped to Walmart to buy some garlic bread for him and Nancy to enjoy with their pasta. 

3. I left The Lounge, paid utility bills, and was determined not to go to the grocery store. 

Good decision. 

I arrived home, realized I had a quart of chicken broth, a couple of strips of bacon, a whole white onion, a few chicken tenders, a quarter of a bag of frozen green beans, another of frozen corn, and fresh russet potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and celery. 

I fried the bacon and sauteed onion slices in the grease.

I poured the chicken broth in a pot and as it heated up it thawed and cooked the chicken and turned the vegetables tender.

At some point, I poured the cooked onions and grease into the soup pot and broke up the bacon slices into pieces and tossed them in the pot. 

I salted it. Peppered it. 

A great dinner and, as a bonus, I put some of the soup broth in Gibbs' food bowl. 

He's been finicky lately about his wet food and his pickiness disappeared once he smelled the soup broth combined with his food and he gobbled up his dinner. 

Three Beautiful Things 03-05-2026: Happy 40th Birthday Molly, An Email for Sally, Good Chat with Debbie

1. When Debbie, Molly, Patrick, and Adrienne moved into my house in 1997, Molly was eleven years old. Today after I wished her a happy 40th birthday, she texted me back and told me she feels very loved today. Knowing that made me very happy and warm inside. 

2. I wrote Sally an email today in which I did my best to convey the wide range of people who have responded to Bruce's passing. Sally hasn't seen the numerous emails, Facebook comments and emojis, and text messages I've been privy to, and I wanted to give her a sense of the affection and high regard people feel for Bruce and of the kindness so many expressed in their condolences for Sally, Eric, and Dean. 

This outpouring moved Sally to tears and smiles. 

Thank you to all of you who posted emojis and wrote messages. 

Sally has told me and Stu how very much she appreciates all this support. 

3. While Debbie waited for Jack's meeting to conclude and to drive him home, she called me. 

Debbie sounded great. She and Jack had worked on some French together earlier and had had a bite to eat.

She knows from reading this blog what's happening with me, but she didn't know that I'm going to hear the Spokane String Quartet Sunday afternoon and I told Debbie that if I can get myself in motion Sunday morning, I'll very likely go to St. John's Cathedral in Spokane and worship at the 10:30 service. I would love to do that and so I've got to rev up my morning motor and get out of the house in time to do that! 

Three Beautiful Things 03-04-2026: I Thought It Said . . . , Enjoyable Haircut, Lunch and Spinning Reels

1. On my Facebook page I saw a Starbucks ad that said, "Better days start with the pop of a cap."

I thought it said, "Better days start with the poop of a cat." 

2. I spent the last couple of days by myself in the house, sending out news about Bruce, working crossword puzzles, comforting myself with food, listening to classical music, having some phone conversations with Stu, doing some kitchen clean up, and napping. 

Today, I was determined to leave the house.  

I drove to CdA and went to Supercuts for a trim.

I happened to arrive in a gap between two rushes of customers and Maggie, working the shop alone,  ushered me to her chair so she could be finished with me before the next rush ensued. 

She was a terrific conversationalist and our non-stop talking back and forth helped make my time in the chair go by quickly. 

3. Today was Winning Wednesday at the CdA Casino. 

I left Supercuts around 1:00 and I hadn't eaten yet. 

I decided it would be relaxing to have a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger with fries and a half a garden salad at the Red Tail Grill and so drove to the casino.

I went to a kiosk, swiped my player's card, found out how much free play I was entitled to, got a five dollar dining voucher, and enjoyed my leisurely lunch which would turn out to be the only meal I'd need all day. 

I spun wheels for a while and neither Lady Luck, the Luck of the Irish, nor Dumb Luck were with me today, so I decided not to try to stage some kind of epic Joe Montana-style comeback to recoup my modest losses. 

Instead I returned home without having to drive in the dark and felt mildly rejuvenated just by being out in the world a bit. 

Another Solemn Day 03-03-2026: Outpouring for Bruce Larsen, Comfort Foods, Kitchen Cleaning

1. The news of Bruce Larsen's passing away prompted a heartwarming outpouring of sadness, love, support, and memories.

2. I took comfort in hearing from so many people today via text messages, emails, and phone calls and in having Gibbs and Copper nearby. And, for better or worse, I've comforted myself over the last two days with chocolate infused trail mix, Ben and Jerry's Salted Caramel ice cream, popcorn, and peanut butter on apple slices.

3. I felt inert most of today, but snapped out of it for a while and went to work on cleaning the kitchen stove and will continue freshening up the kitchen beyond wiping down counters. 

RIP Bruce Larsen 03-02-2026

 1. At about 10:05 p.m. on March 2, 2026, Bruce Larsen passed away. 

 I will post more when his obituary appears and when the time and place of his memorial is established. 

All blessings to all of you who have sent prayers, positive thoughts, and healing energy Bruce's way. 

Please take time to lift up Sally, Eric, and Dean in similar fashion in this grievous time. 

Two Beautiful Things and A Solemn One 03-01-2026: Hospice Care for Bruce, Braising and Blanching, Asian Family Dinner

 1. I'm writing this blog post about Sunday, March 1st on Monday morning. 

On this Monday morning, Stu learned from Sally that Bruce Larsen will now be under hospice care. 

2. Bruce's condition occupied my mind and spirit all day.

Simultaneously, Carol had given me a family dinner assignment and I did my best to do it well. 

Carol asked me to turn a recipe called Braised Shiitake Mushrooms with Baby Bok Choy into an acceptable side dish. 

The only requirement of this recipe I had ever done before was make a stir fry sauce. 

I had never worked with dried Shiitake mushrooms. 

I had never blanched bok choy. 

I gave myself plenty of time for things to go wrong and got going on this. 

I started out by soaking the dried mushroom pieces I'd ordered from Amazon in warm water until they were soft.

I let them soak for about 45 minutes. I quickly sauteed minced garlic and ginger in the wok and then added the mushrooms and stir fried them for a little more than a minute.

I poured the sauce over the mushrooms, covered the wok, and slow cooked the mushrooms for about 45 minutes, stirring the mushroom pieces every fifteen minutes. Later, I made another cup of sauce (I did this outside the recipe) and after it heated up, I added corn starch and water. That thickened the sauce. 

While the mushrooms and sauce bubbled, I cut six baby bok choys in half, dropped them in boiling water for about two minutes and then bathed them in ice water for another minute.

I laid out the blanched bok choy in a baking dish and poured the mushrooms and sauce on top and my contribution was ready. 

(It worked.)

3. Carol planned tonight's dinner as an Asian meal. We didn't focus on the food of any one country. Carol prepared a superb Miso Congee with Honey-Miso Squash. She topped the congee with two medium boiled eggs. Congee was a new dish for all of us and I Ihope we'll bring it back. I know I want to make it at home. Carol also seasoned and air fried tofu and Christy brought a generous plate of pickled vegetables. Our dessert was All-American! Carol baked banana bread and it, too, was terrific. 

We had a lot to talk about: memory, developments at the Kellogg Public Library, PEO bookkeeping, classical music, and more. 

We ate at 3:00 in the afternoon. 

I liked this change from how we usually do things. 

Two Beautiful and One Solemn Thing 02-28-2026: Update on Bruce Larsen, Pre-Concert Fun in Downtown Spokane, An Invigorating Concert

 1. First the solemn news: Saturday afternoon, Bruce had his first dialysis treatment. Byrdman texted Sally to find out how Bruce handled it. Sally responded that Bruce doesn't know what's going on and probably handled the treatment as well as can be expected. On Saturday, Bruce couldn't communicate with the doctors, Sally, or anyone else. He didn't know who Sally was or that she was holding his hand. 

Bruce is now in acute care with the hope that the doctors can get a handle on Bruce's complicated condition. 

Bruce's brother Eric arrived in Spokane. Eric and Sally will return to the hospital Sunday. 

The current goal is to get Bruce coherent and aware. 

2. At 4:00 this afternoon, I met Kenton Bird at the Griffin Tavern. We had great conversation about an array of things, very much including a discussion of our classmate Bruce's situation. 

About forty-five minutes later, Kenton, Gerri, and I walked to the Mango Tree where we met Anne Franke. Kenton and Gerri know Anne from when Anne's late husband, Michael West, filled the pulpit at St. Mark's Episcopal Church and I knew Anne nearly fifty years ago when we both taught part-time at Whitworth in the late 1970s. In other words, it had been a long time since Anne and I had seen each other. 

Our reunion was a happy one. 

Mango Tree is a participant in the current Inlander Restaurant Week, and we ordered the appetizers, entrees, and desserts that were on the special Restaurant Week menu. We ate curry, naan, flatbread "pizza", noodles, chicken wings, different sherberts, and more and had plenty left over to box up.

Ours was a boisterous dinner overflowing with great conversation about books, music, our histories with each other, education, and more. 

3. We finished dinner and Anne drove us to the Fox Theater for tonight's concert performed by the Spokane Symphony. 

The concert focused on works by three great friends: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. The program featured guest conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg and guest pianist Wynona Wang.

It was, for me, a stirring concert featuring Robert Schulman's sweeping Manfred Overture, Clara Schulman's stunning Piano Concerto in A Minor and the, by turns, powerful, enthusiastic, and tender piano virtuosity of Wynona Wang, and Johaness Brahm's monumental Symphony No. 1. 

The music moved me. I had to restrain myself from moving my arms and hands and legs and head the way I would if I were alone and the music fed me emotionally, moving me to wish the concert would last another couple of hours. 

I am incapable of writing a critical review of a symphony concert.

All I know is that I love being in a beautiful theater like the Fox and enjoying the emotional peaks and valleys and contrasting tempos and dynamics of these inspiring compositions played live under the baton of an enthusiastic conductor and by vigorous musicians. 

Guest piano soloist Wynona Wang was especially vigorous, but also remarkably gentle when the score called for quiet restraint. 

Three Solemn Things 02-26 & 27-2026: Bruce to the ER, Visiting Bruce, Another Complication for Bruce

1. On Wednesday, February 25, around 10:30 p.m., Stu forwarded a text to me that he had received from our KHS classmate and lifelong friend. Bruce reported that in November, a biopsy revealed that the malignant melanoma, which had been in remission for many years, was back. He had two rounds of immunotherapy in mid-January and early February and at some time he caught a cold and it just kept worsening until on February 17th he went to the Valley Hospital ER in very tough shape. 

He's been in the Critical Care Unit ever since, but as you will read in a few minutes, on Friday or Saturday, he's being transferred to Deaconess Hospital in Spokane. 

2. Stu visited Bruce on Thursday morning with the idea that he and Bruce could have a talk about how Bruce felt and so on. 

That did not prove to be the case. 

Stu didn't know that Bruce was having a very difficult time breathing, that he could barely speak, nor did Stu know how tired Bruce is. He didn't expect Bruce to be out of it much of the time Scott was there. 

Scott and I worked to get the word out to our classmates and other of Bruce's friends just how seriously ill Bruce had become, with special emphasis on the fact that his cancer treatment was suspended and that the main concern was his respiratory difficulties. 

Today, Scott and I both visited Bruce. 

We both were glad that when Scott spoke to him, Bruce snapped awake and recognized us and looked happy to see us. Stu made some wise cracks about funny things from the past and while Bruce couldn't laugh out loud, it was clear from the look on his face that he enjoyed Scott's quips. 

On the other side of what we saw, Bruce had very little energy today and his breathing continues to be shallow and difficult. He managed to get some words out, but talking is very hard for Bruce. 

I came away from our visit feeling solemn about Bruce's condition.

I also came away very impressed with Sally's devotion to caring for Bruce. Bruce and Sally have been together for nearly 28 years and I could see how committed they are to one another and I thought I could see Bruce's gratitude for how Sally has been at his side for as many hours as possible during his time in the hospital.

3. As I was driving home from Cd'A after having the Camry serviced and eating lunch at Capone's, I pulled off in the chain up area at the bottom of the east side of the 4th of July Pass.

I knew some text messages had flown in.

Sally informed Scott and me that Bruce's kidney numbers were low and that he would be transferred to Spokane's Deaconess Hospital, I just learned, tonight (Friday). 

In light of this, she asked both of us not to visit Bruce. We both had plans to visit him on Saturday, Scott in the morning and I was going to be there in the afternoon. 

I left the chain up area and drove straight to the Inland Lounge and joined Jake and Ed at the bar where we talked about the serious matters at hand and enjoyed laughing about funny and wild stuff about Bruce in the past, the deep past and the recent past. I'm thinking of the golf lessons Bruce gave Terry Turner in Ed's Wildhorse Resort room just a year or two ago. I missed the lessons, but those who saw it agree: it was an epic Lars performance!