Darby Lyons

@darbylyons

Retired English teacher. Book and music lover. Midwesterner, kind of (Army brat, IYKYK), with Appalachian roots. MFA, Sewanee School of Letters. Senior editorial assistant, Cincinnati Review.

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Darby Lyons@darbylyons· 27d

My contribution to a recent text conversation with friends:

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· 28d

English teacher/Author joy! Thrilled to see @madgemaril.bsky.social this evening and can't wait to read The Paddock Club.

A bearded man wearing glasses, a light blue shirt and khakis stands next to a young woman in a black dress sitting at a table, smiling with her hands on her cheeks. On her other side stands a smiling woman with short gray hair, a black shirt and jeans. The two older people hold copies of a book, The Paddock Club

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· 29d

😢The end of an era. I'm so glad I had a chance to meet him (and eat at his restaurants!). My friend, Lesley, a French teacher, knew Jean-Robert and had her 50th birthday celebration at Restaurant L. You can surely tell which one in this picture is Jean-Robert!👨🏻‍🍳

A smiling group of a dozen friends with the renowned chef, Jean-Robert de Cavel, in the fron row of the group

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 13

I've always had such a crush on him, and he was a good guy, too. Bye, Sam, rest easy.

A photo of Sam Neill in Dead Calm, 1989. He's wearing a blue shirt and looking hot.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 12

Haven't gotten the whole group photo from this year yet, but here's my mom and her 5 surviving siblings (one brother passed away 31 years ago). And we fêted her older sister who turned 90 this summer.😍

4 women in their 70s, 80s, and 90s stand together smiling and behind them are two men in their 70s and 80s.

A board on an easel has a picture of a cherubic bany girl, a photo of that same girl at 90, and text that says "Celebrating 90 years of love, laughter, and legacy."

The Queen (with a crown above those words)
Yesterday, Today, Always
Happy Birthday Francie

Beckley Reunion 2026

An older lady stands with a cane, wearing a blue and white shirt, jeans, a sash saying "90 and Fabulous," and a funny floppy hat with a pink pin that says "Birthday Queen"

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 8

When my grandmother was born in July 1914, her mother planted a rosebush. Granny took a cutting every time she moved, and my youngest uncle took a cutting to his home in SC. Granny's rosebush lives on, 112 years later...

A rose bush with small pink roses in the foreground, a green lawn behind it and a ray of sun crossing behind.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 4

My uncle, Sam, and his granddaughters. I have a real Uncle Sam.

An older man sits in a chair with a dog on his lap and a little girl on his lap, next to him another little girl is feeding him some...cheese?

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 4

I took this photo at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY, last fall. Title: "...And Our Flag Was Still There" Creator: Melinda Bula, 2011 Dimensions: 55¹½" x 33¾" Looks like a painting, but it's a quilt! That museum is a treasure.

A quilt of a waving American flag, the edges blurred by wavering other colors that appear similar to smoke and sky... It looks like a painting.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 4

Also, there's this making me smile...my great-niece as Ursula.🤷🏼‍♀️

A little girl in an Ursula costume holding up a couple of "tentacles" and posing regally.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 4

Not feeling very celebratory but trying to hang onto hope and manufacture a little joy today. Had brunch out with the parents and later having a make your own pizza night, maybe some games... Thinking about those who didn't give up believing we could be better.

A black background with a red white and blue fist in the center, below that a flag, and above it, fireworks and this quote: "Nobody's free until everyone's free." ~Fannie Lou Hamer

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 3

How it started/How it's going My maternal grandparents in the 1930s and our family the last few summers. They'd be proud that -so many of us were/are educators -we ALL get together at least once a year (for 30 years now, on a weekend near Granny's bday) -we get together often in smaller groups, too

A faded black and white photo of a young couple, lying in tall grass, looking hot in more ways than one😉

A great big extended family in front of a "party barn."

A large extended family crammed into a room with an arched window behind them

A large extended family on a patio with trees behind them

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jul 2

🥵🤬

AccuWeather app screenshot:
Extreme Heat Warning...

94°
Real Feel 112°

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 30

"If someone could stop the camera then… if someone could only stop the camera and ask me: are you happy?"

The Happiest Day

by Linda Pastan

It was early May, I think a moment of lilac or dogwood when so many promises are made it hardly matters if a few are broken. My mother and father still hovered in the background, part of the scenery like the houses I had grown up in, and if they would be torn down later that was something I knew but didn't believe. Our children were asleep or playing, the youngest as new as the new smell of the lilacs, and how could I have guessed their roots were shallow and would be easily transplanted. I didn't even guess that I was happy. The small irritations that are like salt on melon were what I dwelt on, though in truth they simply made the fruit taste sweeter. So we sat on the porch in the cool morning, sipping hot coffee. Behind the news of the day--strikes and small wars, a fire somewhere--I could see the top of your dark head and thought not of public conflagrations but of how it would feel on my bare shoulder. If someone could stop the camera then... if someone could only stop the camera and ask me: are you happy? perhaps I would have noticed how the morning shone in the reflected color of lilac. Yes, I might have said and offered a steaming cup of coffee.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 29

Putting the "RealFeel" number on the app is just mean.

A screenshot of my wearger app.

At the top, a red "Hear Advisory.

In the cebter, the temperature: 91° and then below tgat,
"RealFeel" 109°

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 29

I love the placement of these two headlines 🤣

Top headline: Cincinnati's 53rd annual Pride festival draws an estimated 300,000 people

Headline below that: Former Hamilton County prosecutor, sheriff Simon Leis dies

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 28

June evening sky, Cincinnati

At the bottom of the photo, the outline of a treeline, above that pinkish orange sky and above that clouds and bluish lilac sky

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 25

Sitting here thinking about how a week ago, I got to chat with two of my favorite poets. #YSR

Natasha Trethewey, wearing a white suit and black blouse, and Tiana Clark, wearing a pink floral patterned dress (with pockets!) stand next to each other, smiling. In the background, banquet tables and various guests.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 24

June morning sky, Sewanee, TN, one week ago today.

Bright blue sky in top left corner, rest of it is white fluffy clouds

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 21

A Father's Day poem

The Summer You Learned to Swim

BY MICHAEL SIMMS

For Lea

The summer you learned to swim
was the summer I learned to be at peace with myself.
In May you were afraid to put your face in the water
but by August, I was standing in the pool once more
when you dove in, then retreated to the wall saying
You forgot to say Sugar! So I said Come on Sugar, you can do it
and you pushed off and swam to me and held on
laughing, your hair stuck to your cheeks—
you hiccupped with joy and swam off again.
And I dove in too, trying new things.
I tried not giving advice. I tried
waking early to pray. I tried not rising in anger. Watching you I grew stronger-
your courage washed away my fear.
All day I worked hard thinking of you.
In the evening I walked the long hill home.
You were at the top, waving your small arms,
pittering down the slope to me and I lifted you high
so high to the moon. That summer all the world
was soul and water, light glancing off peaks.
You learned the turtle, the cannonball, the froggy, and the flutter
and I learned to stand and wait for you to swim to me.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 21

Dad and me.❤️ Happy Father's Day to all the people who do good dad things.

A man with short dark hair and glasses sits in a chair playing guitar and singing. On his lap sits a 5-year-old girl singing along.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 21

Went to my cousin's son's wedding tonight 😍 They look so very young to me!

A woman with short light brown hair in a long purple dress dancing with her son who's wearing a blue suit

A blonde woman in a bridal gown dancing with her new husband who's wearing a blue suit

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 19

Thinking of Otto Warmbier today. We lost a bright light 9 years ago today.

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Aww!

Jack Kerouac

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 18

Look who I met on my morning walk in Sewanee today. She stopped and posed for some photos.

Woods and in the middle distance, a doe look directly at the camera

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 17

Arrived in Sewanee yesterday afternoon... Walked out to the cross and back this morning. #YSR

A memorial that's a large white cross, set in a circle of grass, trees and blue sky and white clouds in the background.

View of a valley from the Cumberland plateau. Trees in the foreground, and in the distance, farms, hills, blue sky and big white clouds

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 15

June afternoon sky, Cincinnati

A bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds floating across it

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 12

Favorite couple 😍

An older man sitting in a recliner with his lovely wife on his lap.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 12

This guy, the best dad a girl could have, turns 92 today!

A photo collage with 5 photos of the same man: school picture at about 5 years old, a college yearbook photo, a photo of him in a suit in an armchair as a man in his mid twenties, a photo of me and him about 10 years ago, and a photo of him and my mom at a restaurant on Valentine's Day 2026.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 10

My mom and dad and my mom's siblings and siblings-in-law are definitely pissed off at having a racist con man/sexual predator in the White House. They range in age from 72 to 92.

Here's an interesting proof of the idea that America is still a young nation: Since we're turning 250, anyone who's 83 or older has been around for a full third of the official national story. These people are, we think, important witnesses to this fraught moment in our civic life - they have the baseline to judge the present against a past long enough to really see what's special about right now. And when we asked a number of them for their views this spring, they did not hold back.

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 9

June evening sky, Cincinnati

A pale blue sky with white, gray, and pink clouds

Darby Lyons@darbylyons· Jun 6

What's your sign?