Hello! It’s been a while. I hope this finds you doing great! Over here, it seems I’ve been between skins forever. And at long last, I am emerging from the chrysalis. I have a few upcoming events that I wanted to let you know about. And a range of poems, essays and interviews to share. Soon I’ll be revealing details … Read More
When you are willing to follow the wrong star home
In 2007, I felt my time in Portland was complete. I planned two trips to places I felt called to — Grass Valley, CA and Maine — to investigate relocation. In Grass Valley, I met a woman who modeled for me something I needed to understand about love. And in Maine, I walked into a house I’ve been dreaming about … Read More
The first law of thermodynamics
My son begins to notice other kids have one home with two parents in it. We are driving and he wants to know why Daddy can’t live with us. The oil tanker is all mirror. It returns us stretched wide to ourselves. I never wanted to be moving forward in all directions at once, but here we are, inverted, the … Read More
alive at the center
When the name of an event reaches like a sliver of light through the cracked-open door of my heart, I follow where I am led. This is how I came to attend the reading launching alive at the center, a poetry collection from Ooligan Press featuring contemporary poems from the pacific northwest. Alive at the center: that is what these past, few … Read More
Making mosaics
These last three months have been a comedy of error in which everything imaginable in my life has broken. When it started raining into my bedroom, I discovered my roof needed to be replaced. My front and back doors fell apart, my blog got repeatedly hacked and corrupted, multiple faucets started leaking–you get the picture. I have lived long enough … Read More
Dear Raspberry,
When I returned Noe to the earth and she sent her staccato of sweetness up into the unending sky, I was not yearning for more than I was given. Then the blueberries got to chattering all along the lattice of the deck and you rose from your empty decade, your margin of darkness to reach a bracken arm in. Volunteer … Read More
Dear Reed Canyon,
I circle you as time circles history first with one dog, then two, then one. We accept each other’s changes. The salmon flash through, fighting for their lives. The nutria are trapped with apples and sent away. Your waters rush and pool, rush and pool. By the stepped rocks, Henry loved to drop his ball then retrieve it where it … Read More
Learn who to ask for help, what to ask for, and how to use the feedback
An interesting series of questions at my Wordstock workshop on Sunday got me thinking about how asking for help—and making that help useful—is an art unto itself in the writing life. I’d like to offer some guidelines that I hope will invite the best possible support for your work and your process. Pay attention to the feedback and support that … Read More
Sadie and the song of your soul
I love a cat I do not know. Our shared context: the parking lot where she lives, circling the apartment building where my son lives some of the time with his father, and where I twice-daily leave and then collect my car in the complicated dance of co-parenting, school transport and work commute. I barely registered her as I raced … Read More
Let’s bump up our productivity together at Wordstock on October 14!
Hello and happy autumn! Here in Portland, it’s a crisp, bright afternoon, and I’m feeling quite invigorated to be at my writing desk. Since starting my job as senior writer at a marketing agency six months ago, it hasn’t been easy to prioritize the writing that is closest to my heart. Which is why I’m especially excited to be spending … Read More