Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

Ladybugs, children and understanding death

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It's hard to believe it's been nearly six years since my son Derek died. Sometimes reminders fly at you from the most unlikely places. One such time was at a recent Poetry at the Farmhouse series. When pet bugs die: At the Farmhouse, poet Robert Fanning explained his son, at four, didn't fully grasp the passing of his aunt until his ladybug friend died. The poem about that incident, from Fanning's … [Read more...]

Taken too soon

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Earlier this year I discovered the infant section at Mount Avon Cemetery. Eleven babies in all. They were hard to find because the stones were nearly completely grown over. I imagine the parents have moved out of town and are no longer able to tend to their sites, but they keep their little ones forever in their hearts. I spent a couple hours cleaning them up. Joshua Daniel Friedle, … [Read more...]

Love and loss on Labor Day, 2017

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Emotional support: Today I tidied the gravesites of Jacob Vaness Young, his wife Leita and their two children, swapping out summer flowers for fall stuff. I took my corgi, Clementine, with me for the first time since late spring, when a cranky cop told me "No pets allowed in the cemetery." In other words, vacate and don't come back (this, after several other officers over many years have chatted … [Read more...]

Imagining Fictional Characters

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A series of fun photographs I took with dolls posed behind the partial figure on my book cover got me thinking about faces on book covers, and what we imagine when we read. What do you see when you read? Think of your favorite character: What, exactly, do you envision? Can you conjure an actual face? A body? Peter Mendelsund writes in What We See When We Read: Even if an author excels at … [Read more...]

The Art of Googly Eyebombing

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Street art: Eyebombing is "Humanizing the world, one googly eye at a time." It's the art of sticking googly eyes onto an inanimate object in a public setting in a way that creates the appearance of a living creature. A boost in popularity took place when two Danish eyebombers revitalized this apparently lost form of street art. They say: What makes Eyebombing different from traditional types of … [Read more...]