Elizabeth Howard

Elizabeth writes literary non-fiction, haiku, cultural rants, and Demand Poetry in order to forward the cause of beautiful writing. She calls London, Kansas City, and Iowa home.

A Jonas Brother Amongst Us.

I was having a perfectly lovely lazy Thanksgiving when I notice a young teeny bopper-ish boy performing during halftime of the game that was on TV. He was pretty cute, I thought. Dark curly hair, sweet mischievous smile, eyes that crinkled to a squint when he grinned. In the photo, here, it’s the one on…

The Leaving Song

I’ve been getting attached to things that aren’t mine anymore, things that have moved on, most especially since I have been reading the “American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating & Drinking.” It was published in 1964 and is chock full of old American recipes, including the famous Chicken Corn Soup and Fastnachts that…

My Amazing Husband: The Hole in the House

Happy Thanksgiving. Colin and I are away for a few days (guard cat Betty is home and in charge!), but I wanted to make sure I said my Thanks here for Colin, who is, by all accounts, amazing. I won’t bore you with a laundry list, I’ll just provide one or two examples, in images.…

Of Old Wood and Hands Made

Our Farm Table, by David Ellison of Lorimer Antiques We recently had our “new” dining room table delivered to us. It was the last piece of the renovation puzzle in our “green” family room.  It really is green… the walls are not only painted green, but were painted with low VOC paint (low harmful fumes)…

English Things I Miss, Part 1: The Toast Rack

Here’s a new, non-regular segment for you that perhaps will help me cope with the grieving process of no longer living in London: English Things I Miss, subtitle, Though Not Necessarily So Much That I Would Move Back to the God-Forsaken Land of Clouds and Complaining. First English Thing I Miss: The Toast Rack It…

Roadkill Relations

We’ve got the fatties back in our yard, and I am responsible. Squirrels get happy around Halloween here– they love to snack on our jack-o-lanterns, 5 times their size. I encourage it, really, sort of hoping that they will end up just too slow to move, and find themselves trying to dodge the car tires,…

How We Love Long Beach

If anyone is wondering what I was doing on election day, have a look at this photo… This is LONG BEACH, an image taken from the air a few years ago, of one of the beaches owned by my town, Stratford, CT. On election day–all but about two hours, anyway–I spent the day at Wilcoxson…

All the Things I am Not Saying

All the things I am not saying are sitting there, on the sofa, an elephant knitting from an endless ball of yarn. All the things I am not saying are molding in a plastic container,  because I refused to eat them, or to throw them out, and I would not wash it out, or even…

Yes We Can… Now We MUST!

Let’s enjoy today. To bask in the warmth of the light of change. Let’s enjoy the fruits of our hard work and watch CNN until our eyeballs fall out. Let’s scan the world’s papers to see ourselves, admired through others’ eyes. Let’s hold hands and sing, and high five, and, especially when the cameras are…

The Perfect Marriage: TiVo and Netflix

My husband, maybe to mock my attachment to my typewriter, or maybe just to give me the good news, sent me this article, today. It breaks the much-awaited news (at least around our place) that two of the greatest entertainment inventions: TiVo and Netflix, are going to join forces. This is akin to the Wonder…

Pumpkin Carving Party– Here!

Colin and I are carving our pumpkins tonight on Hilltop. I bought them from the little farm around the corner from us. They didn’t grow them there (their crop got whacked by the hailstorm in August too), but got them from Hamden up the road. I am going through all the motions of my favorite…

Futura, Facebook and My iPhone

Lately I’ve been keeping my laptop packed up in my backpack. It’s been getting Jan Brady’s worth of my attention these days. The combination of feeling overwhelmed (over-digged, over-twittered, over-booked) and of being the proud mother of conflicting pieces of beautiful technologies has caused me to rework my communication priorities. Here they are: 1. The…

For the Love of Jonatha and Woody

The Genius on my iPod might as well just say “Awesome Singer Songwriters Need Only Apply.” It is constantly shuffling around Chapin and Lyle, Pink Martini and Tom Waits, Emmylou and Patti Griffin, Catie Curtis and the Tragically Hip. And, of course, Jonatha. I’ve got other music dappled on the lists, but it is just…

The Smell of Mums

My Romanian dentist gave me a bouquet of pink mums today! Why would a dentist do that? I was admiring the vase of flowers on her front desk and she said “Would like like some to take home?” I blustered and said “Oh no really, I couldn’t” but she took me directly outside, to her backyard…

The Shape of a Woman

I caught of glimpse of myself — el nudo — in a full length mirror the other day and stopped. “Hmmm, not bad.” Not as bad as I thought, anyway. I hardly ever see myself full length, especially without clothes, and I bet most women don’t. The mirrors where we get intimate are the ones…