I'm happy to feed the squirrels - tree rats with the agility of point guards - but in fair weather, they frighten my finches. They leap from snowbank to porch to feeder and stuff their cheek pouches with chickadee feed. Donald Hall agilitycheekchickadee share on social
Not everything in old age is grim. I haven't walked through an airport for years, and wheelchairs are the way to travel. Donald Hall ageairportgrim Change image and share on social
There's a great deal of stripping away; in early drafts, I may say the same thing two or three times, and each may be appropriate, but I try to pick the best and improve it. I work on sound a great deal, and I will change a word or two, revise punctuation and line breaks, looking for the sound I want. Donald Hall breakchangedeal share on social
When I lament and darken over my diminishments, I accomplish nothing. It's better to sit at the window all day, pleased to watch birds, barns, and flowers. Donald Hall accomplishbarnbird Change image and share on social
However alert we are, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy. Donald Hall alertantiquitygalaxy Change image and share on social
Each season, my balance gets worse, and sometimes I fall. I no longer cook for myself but microwave widower food, mostly Stouffer's. My fingers are clumsy and slow with buttons. Donald Hall badlybalancebutton Change image and share on social
When I lived summers at my grandparents' farm, haying with my grandfather from 1938 to 1945, my dear grandmother Kate cooked abominably. For noon dinners, we might eat three days of fricasseed chicken from a setting hen that had boiled twelve hours. Donald Hall abominablyboilchicken share on social
By 1968, I had lived 10 years in Michigan. Gradually, I had come to love watching Detroit's baseball club in its small, beautiful, antiquated Tiger Stadium - a baseball park as fine as Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, though it never got the adulatory press. Donald Hall adulatoryantiquatebaseball share on social
Although I was paid a salary in Ann Arbor, my wife and children and I drank powdered milk at six cents a quart instead of the stuff that came in bottles. I was a tightwad. Donald Hall annarborbottle Change image and share on social
Friends die, friends become demented, friends quarrel, friends drift with old age into silence. Donald Hall agedementeddie Change image and share on social