I thought forgiveness was a choice like wearing the black shoes with the grey tights, face arranged for the mirror. I thought I could make a bouquet of my thoughts, thirst clipped to the small bowl of understanding. Politely, I swallowed my life as if I were smuggling myself in until rage burned my bones clean. Blood the story passed … Read More
Dear Divorce,
Your branding iron hovers over me as if there were only one way to give up hope. The lawyer has advised me who owes what. How we can expect to be judged. There are precedents for everything in the unwinding of yours from mine. I know there have been endless sons shuttled from half-home to half-home that won’t add up … Read More
Infuse your muse with the *Writing the Life Poetic* e-zine
Happy second week of National Poetry Month! I hope you are are in a poetic rhythm that delights you! Want some good company this month? I’d like to invite you to check out a publication I edit and publish: *Writing the Life Poetic*, a free, bi-monthly e-zine that delivers information and inspiration about the life poetic from these legendary, Portland-area … Read More
making time for writing: part 6
TAKE A TIME-OUT I believe in signs. That’s why, when my ten-month-old son pulled the book Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest by Wayne Muller off the shelf for the third time, I decided it was time to read it. Guilty of preaching something akin to Sabbath in my book Writing the Life Poetic, but infrequently practicing it, this … Read More
Happy National Poetry Month!
There’s no better time than April to wet your poetic whistle. It’s National Poetry Month, and around the world and the web, there are endless events, communities and opportunities where you can connect, write, and steep in poetic possibilities. I’d like to tell you about a few. To jump-start your poetic process, consider participating in a poem-a-day challenge. Get a … Read More
making time for writing: part 5
TOP-TEN TIME-WASTING STRATEGIES When you’re not in a go-get-’em writing mode, the most important thing to do is keep your creative engine warm and running. The following list of possibilities is designed to help you keep your head in the game by doing things that indirectly benefit your writing life and can quickly create a feeling of either relaxation or … Read More
A Dictionary of the Cathedral
In my devotion, the candle was dumb. It came to me in birds. It came to me scuffed with thrust. It came to me withered, split. It came to me silent as a knife, fat with treasure. It was a feather pluming my plow, a borrowed dress dragged to dust. In my absence, I could not find the husk. Shame sailed … Read More
making time for writing: part 4
PROCRASTINATE PRODUCTIVELY “I told a friend that I was writing two romance novels simultaneously, as well as an erotic serial, and a couple of short stories, all at once (not to mention my baseball blog, tea blog, et cetera…) and she told me her head would explode if she tried to do that. I pointed out, reasonably, that she did … Read More
Gratitude for all we didn’t get–that we thought we wanted
I didn’t get rich. I didn’t get the girl. Follow me. — Leonard Cohen Years ago at a Thanksgiving dinner with a group of friends, we went around the table each offering our own version of thanks. When it was my turn, there was an uncomfortable silence following my confession of gratitude for everyone who had hurt me and all … Read More
making time for writing: part 3
YOU HAVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE My computer monitor looks like a root system for sticky notes; it has become host to the layers and layers of pastel-posted ideas and to-dos that I scribble and stick as they flit through my mind while working. The accumulation of such notes creates a feeling of clutter, but more uncomfortably a sinking … Read More