“One of the unconfessed pleasures of lying on a tree-shaded beach in the afternoon is falling asleep in the company of adults. It is one of the few times when we allow ourselves…

“In the poem Auden talks about what makes for a good dinner party. The list includes the ‘authentic comity’ of a smallish gathering (‘six lenient semble sieges/none of them perilous,/is now a Perfect/Social…

“We were impostors. Smoking or religiously tending ivy or re-writing until the early morning had nothing of the inevitable single-mindedness and the impoverishment of everyday life that ensues when the self becomes wholly identified…

“We are not always ready for the things we buy. Some are better suited to a lifestyle, income or body that is beyond our means to acquire. Others require more skill to use…

“I was asked by a friend to read at an evening of poetry he’s organizing. I said yes. He’s paired me with a young Greek poet who will be reading in translation the…

“Among the objects Matthew would retrieve from the hidden excess of our possessions were small-scaled replicas of museum objects: a Cycladic figure, a collared jar, a small statue of Apollo with his lyre,…

  “Coming out is hard, and we each do it in our own way. I respect Rogers’ courage and admire the public manner in which he shared this with his fans and the…

“That day–the day of the lesson–my teacher asked me to stay after school. For a chat, she said. I sat through the rest of the afternoon anxiously wondering what I could have done…

“A rejected suitor doesn’t need to know he’s not at fault; he’s already convinced he is lacking; his question ‘why,’ this jagged ore of hurt and want, is rhetorical. He poses it not…

“I could almost see David sitting bravely at the table, eating up the bad meals his mother made, not making the slightest grimace or protest. It wasn’t hard to imagine him as a…