It’s only 9 am but my brain is already full of fodder. “Nearly 50 Charged in College Admissions Bribery Scandal.” An obit of a man who loved catching salmon but gave up hunting. The way coffee tastes. My to-do list, the future day unfurling too fast. I want to be poetic, write gorgeous words that […]
Category: Writing
Why Blog Daily?
Everything’s moving so fast right now. Someone suggested I shouldn’t blog every day. To ask myself why I blog. To set up a schedule and blog a few times a week. And these are good questions. Time is moving fast. I have too much to do to fit it into the hours I have to […]
Orange-Red (brown)
The trees are split open, their orange-reds insides are startlingly beautiful this time of year. This time of year, the dank wet dampness covers everything, even though everything grows. Everything grows because it rains more days than we’d like to think about. These days, I think about summer ahead. How when summer arrives, that means […]
I Don’t Know/I Want
I eat my lunch while reading, my thoughts faster than the speed at which I can write them down. Oh! My students should read this: here’s a poem about peeling an orange. Wait—it’s really long & it’s about cancer and war and travel and oranges. The vent system of our house is pushing waves of […]
Fire
To write one true poem. The year begins, and I hear the words again: To write one true poem. From my wall hanging. The one I stop and read. The one about loving wolves over dogs. Make haste for your gifts. Prepare for the words to light you up. I don’t know which words are […]
Wasting Time
I’m alone. I’m eating curry. I’m listening to Sam Smith. Loud. I’m sorting papers. I’m remembering my editor Lisa who told me that I need to waste time for new stories to find me. Your co-worker who looks like he is wasting time on the Internet? He has the best story idea. I like making […]
Rest
It’s almost time for bed, but here I am. I promised myself I’d post everyday. That this would be a container for my work, my way of making myself show up on the page even when I’d rather coast. It’s tricky, having a blog, even when blogs are out of style and not the way […]
Dart & Settle
This word is one small stone. I lift it up onto the page because I told myself I’d keep going. I’d keep writing here every day past my November goal. Why? I can be sarcastic and mean to myself and say these words don’t matter except I know they do matter for me. I’m writing […]
Stretch
Decades ago, a friend gave me a bookmark that read: “Stretch yourself for greatness and for height.” (George Chapman, perhaps?) Lately I’ve been stretching myself. I’m not taller. And I think this stretching means I have more deadlines. Which means I’m tired. I’m writing this blog before I turn to more work. Prepping for the […]
Uncombed
Eleven hours of sleep make me a cloud with nothing to say. A cloud with dishwater blond hair, stinky breath and coiled muscles. One with a brain thinking about language and how I overuse words. That is what’s next: creating a new dictionary for myself to feed my brain. Blogging every day is magical because […]