Article Archives: Words with Woods

Things Change

April 29, 2021 | by CJ Woods III

As a 14-year-old high school student, I worked as a page in the open stacks of the University of Pittsburgh library. My job was one of the benefits of my mother’s labors in the household of a regent of the university. She cleaned house and her son shelved books. Everyone … Read More

The Joy Of Words

April 22, 2021 | by CJ Woods III

My text to my 17-year-old grandson was this: “What is a herbenerbitz?” His immediate reply was, “A tram car.” I laughed aloud, and sent him a follow-up text, saying that I knew he would remember, and that I had forgotten. About seven years ago, Xavion and Imani spent the last … Read More

Dancing at the Foot of My Bed

April 15, 2021 | by CJ Woods III

Nothing starts a day better than to be awakened by an 8-year-old girl dancing at the foot of your bed. The words above were written in 2017, when my 8-year-old granddaughter Imani was waking early and going into her living room to see if her Cool Papa was still asleep … Read More

April 1968

April 8, 2021 | by CJ Woods III

This column originally appeared in March 2016. “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.” — Tillie Olsen; “I Stand Here Ironing.” I was standing at an ironing board, pressing the white smock I wore as an attendant at a psychiatric … Read More

April Is National Poetry Month

April 1, 2021 | by CJ Woods III

Some people graced me with a gift recently and my thanks to them was a poem. I’m unsure that they understood the preciousness of the gift — to me, for them — but I believe that a poem is always appropriate to commemorate an occasion. National Poetry Month was launched … Read More