Would you believe me now if I told you I was happy? That I get why I was too much, too full of feeling that pushes people away? That I see unhappiness in all its forms, how I want to push it away, too. How difficult it is too be with difficulty. How I brushed […]
Category: Happy
The Last Day of July
Love is what I come back to every day In the moments of hardening I catch myself Think “love…can you get to love?” The world is windy I have tasks I can’t get to Within my reach is love The moment I ran up the hill & my friend’s son ran past me Young legs […]
Cause And Effect
I capitalize the A because it’s crazy sometime how clearly I see Cause and Effect. How yesterday a friend called and invited me to see Michelle Obama with her friends. What a huge gift. Liz was sad I wouldn’t be home last night and I said, “Liz, it’s Michelle Obama.” Touché. I think the entire […]
Teaching Love
I just finished teaching, my 2nd out of 3 creative play series for adults. It’s more clear to me now that this is one of my prime reasons for being. I love sharing word play, my love of words, how to sandwich words together and see what happens. It might seem funny to know this […]
Bliss
Bliss by Nancy Schatz Alton I step into the space I make it soothing, sacred liminal a place to linger, listen spiral & breathe I breathe here becoming who I once was I read in reading my words the world is a stage it’s calling me back my girl who yearns to perform to hold […]
Culmination
Last night, I dreamed someone hired me sight unseen. Before bed I walked beneath a clear, starlit sky, happy. I’ve fed myself decades of get-to-calm tips until this culmination: waking to good news sleep-delivered to my hungry soul.
Flash Floods
Flash Floods by Nancy Schatz Alton I trace the spaces this life has made in me: the way the underpass, bereft of water feels to my running feet how once the running stopped the orange bike arrived & I rode how I rode in the basement a new path unlike the path I made on […]
Astonishment
There’s so much to love in this world. Did Mary Oliver say that? All her favorite words are in my lexicon— Astonished—How I love to be astonished. How grateful I am by unexpected sightings: Caroline curled up on the couch, studying with her friend. Liz step wholly into herself: saying exactly what she thinks. OK—not […]
A Drummer Drumming
A Drummer Drumming by Nancy Schatz Alton “I’m a deep kettle whistle” -Hannah Ensor & Laura Wetherington I want to be the drummer playing “The Obvious Child.” No, I want to be the drum being drummed. I want the tapping, the metal reverberations—snapping popping pushing lifting drumming—drummed right into me until I am the dance. […]
Happy Birthday
Today’s it’s my brother’s birthday and I think of him in New York City, celebrating another day. I think of all the people we cannot see who think of us when we can’t imagine anyone thinking of us. I think of the tiny prayers we hold in our hearts. The ones that we want to […]