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About Mary McKSchmidt
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Blog postWhile I am on sabbatical this year taking writing and poetry classes, I thought I'd step briefly into the public domain to share my poem, Jane Tree Corner.
Earlier this month, Rubin, my sister, Kath, and I travelled to Albuquerque for the Memorial Service for mother’s twin. Mother, almost 95, decided the trip from Michigan to New Mexico in the midst of the spiking coronavirus, could jeopardize her health and ability to live independently. I agreed to videotape the servic -
Blog postAs the splendor of summer unfolds, I am reminded why Rubin and I moved to Michigan sixteen years ago. Take a few minutes to watch what happens when the lens of my camera accompanies award-winning singer/songwriter Ruth Bloomquist. I hope the combination lifts your spirit as we begin the summer of 2021.
(A longer version, which includes an interview with Ruth, was posted last year and may be seen at https://youtu.be/Bo9Heu4upho ) -
Blog postI am sharing this very personal poem to honor the poets of Myanmar, individuals who are being shot, burned, and imprisoned for writing their truth in a country whose elected government was ousted by the military earlier this year.
May we find other ways to reconcile our differences than silencing the voices of others, or the voice within ourself.
I almost step
into the familiar fog
of inferiority
until I remember
to take -
Blog postWere it not for her name, we would have missed her.
Tens of thousands of eye-popping tulips, the unfamiliar music of the street organ, the Friesian horses in the field, the replica of the Dutch village, the romantic allure of the red and white bridge, and the winding path to the famous “De Zwann” windmill are overwhelming attractions. She is, after all, small in stature and tucked in a corner alongside the river. Without even a nearby bench to give one pause, to invite t -
Blog postIn response to the invitation from Anne-Marie Oomen and me to write a love letter to water, I received this poem from grade school friend, Eric Stemle. As I study the writing of poetry with master poets such as Billy Collins, Jack Ridl and David Whyte and ways to infuse humor into one’s art with David Sedaris, Eric’s poem is a lesson in both. It is a reminder. Inspiration can come from anyone, anywhere, anything. The important thing is to extend the invitation and then allow space for the conver
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Blog postThe month is February, the month of the heart. The year is 2021, the year after one defined by masked and socially-distanced relationships, isolation, and airwaves pummeled with heated and, often, toxic political debate. The voice of award-winning author, Anne-Marie Oomen, is like a beacon of light piercing a misty fog of uncertainty.
Write a love letter to water, she suggests.
As one who has always measured herself on results, my immediate t -
Blog postYou did not warn me about storms,
how each drop of rain is like
a bowling ball battering your body;
how the slightest decline in temperature
can send you spiraling to the earth’s floor
where hungry beaks and sucking mouths
anxiously await your floundering arrival.
I did not see you slip quietly into the brush
when thunder roared in the distance;
how tightly you folded your wings -
Blog post“. . . But Only God Can Make a Tree”
Joyce Kilmer The orange-breasted birds greet us like old friends,
two women escaping the suffocating walls
of a lingering pandemic. Her arm around mine,
perhaps for balance, perhaps intimacy, perhaps both.
The other hand carries a cane, at my request, as we stroll
through the park delig -
Blog postThe Breakfast Bench
Concealed by a family of Dutch immigrants
cast in bronze and framed in flashy hibiscus,
surrounded by black-buttoned gold called Susans,
a clumpy hedge of roses, a wall of waist-high grasses,
the bench, the two women agree,
as they stroll arm-in-arm up the cobbled path,
is perfect. Perched on top a grassy hill
overlooking a familiar lake,
steps fro -
Blog postTo escape the sometimes-suffocating walls of the pandemic, we walk. Mother in her Tilley hat, me with a camera, arm-in-arm, we find joy and adventure exploring the parks in Holland.
A favorite is less than a mile from her home. No matter how often we visit, we marvel at the giant girth and height of the trees, the vast array of colors and shapes of the leaves, the hilarious antics of the squirrels, and the miracle that such a park could exist in the middle of a Holland n
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