Today’s poem really speaks to me. Part of this is because many of my poems are like this, written in this style. But really it’s because this poem speaks to those really hard moments in parenting. There I am, with one of my daughters, and she is really upset and I know she is going […]
Category: Poetry
Being Here
I’m back with April’s Poetry for Parents. I just returned from the Olympic Peninsula, where my family of four has spent the last three Easters. We all love it, and I love that my daughters will love this place fiercely, this place where we are all as present as can be, spending time together. We […]
Homework Afterthoughts
Is afterthought a word? I think it is. I have many afterthoughts about homework with my children. Often they come to me in poems.Writing poems is how I make sense of my brain and the world around me. Today I’m posting what amounts to a rough draft, since it’s by me. I dash of poetry […]
The Open Window
Poet Deborah Keenan‘s writing came to me like an open window that I had to jump through while I was in my early twenties. I had just finished college, and I had heard of her because she went to my college (Macalester) years before me and she had supposedly married an English professor from the […]
Poetry for Parents
Recently a friend suggested that I make a place on my blog for poetry that speaks to parents. And here it is, April, poetry month. Well, why not post a poem a day that has special resonance for parents? Here goes. Thanks for the great idea, Kerry Colburn! I can’t promise there will be a […]
Expectations and Despair
“Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.” As I walk the dogs, I remember this line from an Alice Walker poem. But I remember it differently. I hear it as, “Expect nothing. Live frugally/on despair.” Why did I love this line long ago? Did my despair feed me? It didn’t. I wanted it all, but I […]
How will the book end?
A few months ago I sat and drank tea with a friend. We meet to talk poetry and life every month or so, whenever time allows. I told her about the two white dogs we might adopt. Her reply put me face to face with my memoir writer’s block. “Maybe that’s how your book will […]
The Required New Year’s Post
It’s the end of the year. By now, you have read too many lists about the good and the bad, the bright and the dark, the old and the new. Perhaps, like me, you find the short dark days both to be too long and too dark. Perhaps, like me, you relish having the kids […]