Who doesn’t like a good story and when I mean a story, I mean a person. You’ve heard “don’t judge a book by its cover” and while the genesis of this phrase may have started with a book, let’s just say more often than not it’s intended for people. Journalism, waitressing, coffee barista, even librarian-… Continue reading Let’s get social
Category: Tales from the MFA
Seeing the Light
I have a bit of a tendency toward thinking about the morbid. As I type this, my black lacquered nails tap the keys furiously. This morning I found out that a friend is in very critical condition. I’m thinking about death and about losing two legs and how the unconscious self recognizes the shearing off… Continue reading Seeing the Light
A change a comin’
I have 80% decided to publish a one-time journal. 80% rather than 100% because I am still in the exploration phase and analysis phase, but I have an idea, a poetry comrade who’s interested in helping and a gnawing curiosity that is pushing this nearer to closing the 20% gap. Stay tuned.
Bad Habits Put to Bed
With the arrival of June is the stark realization that half the year is gone. Never to be seen again. And what do I have to show for it? Deepening love for one character of a guy and a lot of travels (minus a now defunct trip next week to NYC). The writing has not… Continue reading Bad Habits Put to Bed
gift from the wilderness
This year has been such a topsy turvy ride. But life is like that, sometimes you get signed up for classes you never thought you needed to take. I for one was thinking about all these good things happening right now in my life. And how sometimes when you’re great but the people around you… Continue reading gift from the wilderness
Geeking out on a Saturday night
I think writers are a special breed. Everyone writes. I get that. And some even go so far as to declare that as their profession (catch the slight nasal inflection upon the word “writer”) which is different in perception than being a reporter. There is something to be said for the drug of the craft.… Continue reading Geeking out on a Saturday night
glass half full kinda gal
It’s 11 p.m. on a Friday night. I’m at home tethered to my computer. Revising poems is no small thing. Even the smallest tweak can be maddening. You want the cadence and the sense to all coexist happily. You want to be open to suggestion and know when to drop the eraser. It’s all a… Continue reading glass half full kinda gal
Greetings from New Hampshire
Long live the evenings where the wick burns late into crickets chirping and the mornings hunkered down, eye mask on, avoiding the inevitability of sunlight. Poetry camp this past week extends itself into a week feeling like a lifetime that then transcribes itself into mere minutes, breaths of time exhausted in cups of coffee, collusion… Continue reading Greetings from New Hampshire
Life uncut: Earth Day
Earth Day. Somehow I am dressed in all black. We’ll say workout clothing. Rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I rush off to the car, feeling like I’m running late. Engine started, doors shut, I am about to pull away from the curb when I see the largest bug with stilted legs flying along the… Continue reading Life uncut: Earth Day
Bubbly like a glass of good champagne
Tonight, I met up with a grad school friend’s mom for dinner at Straits. Over garlic noodles, pickled ginger salad and chili-laced long beans, we talked culture, literature and life direction. Honestly, I knew going into it that this would be a significant conversation. She teaches American Lit. at a school in Texas and her… Continue reading Bubbly like a glass of good champagne
Drum roll, please
I finished writing the first draft of my thesis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You’re right, I’m not excited at all… In fact the little 15 pager ended up at a cool 22. Hallelujah. Seriously, I traveled to four cities in two and a half weeks and wrote a thesis in the midst of all of it. Can I get… Continue reading Drum roll, please
Lying among leaves of grass with the Rabbi
As one who believes in equality for all men and women (but knowing that opportunity does not present itself equally for all), I embrace Walt Whitman’s imperative of equality in “Song of Myself”. Any disparaging mumbles or mind mutters I’ve ever made in his direction I rescind. He speaks about a prostitute: “The prostitute draggles… Continue reading Lying among leaves of grass with the Rabbi