Scheherazade

by Juliane McAdam

May 28, 2026

Image of an open book with fairy lights in the middle and person's hands holding the book open. — Image credit: Nong on Unsplash

Scheherazade, fabled storyteller of Arabian Nights,

under sentence of death, told stories with no endings.

Endless new beginnings, night after night,

kept her alive.

But stories, for all of us, are as essential

to living as breathing. Our lives unfold

like narratives, with beginnings, middles, ends.

Like Scheherazade, we are all under sentence of death,

but in telling our stories, we live.

Black and white photo of the author, Juliane McAdam. — Juliane McAdam

Juliane McAdam is a California native who grew up in the stark beauty of the Mojave Desert. She spent the last 27 years of a 40-year teaching career teaching English and Spanish to middle school students in Los Angeles, writing poems with them. Now retired and living near Morro Bay on California’s beautiful Central Coast, she enjoys walks, playing piano, and writing poems to record observations and memories.