by Mary McKSchmidt | Mar 30, 2026 | 2026, Blog Post
Walking a never-ending ascent to a bluff overlooking the Bandon River outside Kinsale, Ireland, I see a gate painted fire-engine red, adorned with daffodils. On the gate is a plaque framed in gold with bold letters, We Will Never Forget. Stunned, I...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Mar 23, 2026 | 2026, Poetry
A third of the way across the Bandon River bridge,gale winds threaten to hurl me off the sidewalk and onto the path of the oncoming cars. I am loatheto admit defeat, turn back, retrace hard-won steps enroute to the fort, the first one built to defend the harbor. And...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Mar 16, 2026 | Blog Post, 2026
Our decision to remain in the same place for a week or so at a time as we explore Ireland was just what I needed. I do not feel like a tourist, more like one discovering the secrets of a new home. Every journey by foot. Every trip out the red door of this historic...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Mar 8, 2026 | Poetry, 2026
Only the bedspread is blue, a bedroom where bay windows are a lens into life inside a forest. It is not the sunny vista discussed every morning she awakened to my presence, but in this room every morning, I feel her presenceand am anything but blue. “Hello, my...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Feb 23, 2026 | Poetry, 2026
How storm clouds swallowing the horizon seem to dissipatewhen I have no access to anythingbut you and meand this moment. How I wish to retreatinto this cocoon of comfortforever, never again to feel suffering for which I have no...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Feb 9, 2026 | Poetry, 2026
1. enticing blue skies last lingering leaf conflictedthose final hours 2. heart sliced by painonslaught of torrential rainswimming to the sky our familiar bench bare limbs of locust drenchedground littered with leaves orphan in shadowshalting hoot of the Hornravine...
