Late December by Nancy Schatz Alton The darkest week of the year descends. It holds me to my bed, tucked in & warm. The rain rushes the windows & warns of the storm. The winds land on the roof & scream for the heat. Why do we get up and out of bed? […]
Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing by Nancy Schatz Alton I understand the instinct to move away a one-way train ticket to an unseen city no one to compare myself to a new grid to learn bus routes & waterways coffee shops & croissants to see the mountains & realize I didn’t know the mountains would be […]
Open Heart
Open Heart by Nancy Schatz Alton I want to be a “flung-open door” just like the poem says capturing wind & tree sway bird song & seal dive. I’m the Sunday hike all week long no interruptions for the mundane all sea swell & evergreen scent no room for disappointment or dismay. […]
Want
Want by Nancy Schatz Alton All day I wrapped up want. Measured the wrapping paper against each book. Folding, turning, creasing each fold until the flatness was satisfying. Tape torn then placed and sealed. Ribbons cut, wound, tied & tightened. Packaged and handed to each waiting customer. The want in the giving is great: how […]
Today’s Angle
What angle shows the blooms best? How will you know that I’ve had these flowers for a week and they’re just now they are starting to sing? Yet I’m not a photographer. I can’t capture the way these flowers make me feel. How every new turn we take highlights ideas we didn’t see at first. […]
Unclench
My deadlines are done for today/my mind unwinds the thread of the storyline/my muscles unclench from the need to help my brain find the right words/how to ease into quiet time after the noise? I hold myself so tight/it’s only in the release that I see my stance/I push articles up and out from within […]
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 […]
This Shore
I can’t make things easier just by wishing it were so. I can only stand in the path that is my life. It doesn’t help to think it was harder back there. Or to know it’s easier than so many other places that people stand. This ache is my ache. The pulling apart of the […]
The Dance
The Dance by Nancy Schatz Alton I fold over myself into who I used to be: if we didn’t like ghosts, we wouldn’t become parents 6, 16, 22, 13, 8: our lives illuminated by those who come after. It’s a song we keep singing while forcefully dropping the storyline. I see me back […]
The Battle
The Battle by Nancy Schatz Alton All night my ears whistle, sing of the weather change The rain slowly arrives: we’re back in the grey. I can’t write eloquently about how I hoped to be better than myself. Stress-free, sliding into fancy clothes, off to the party, humming. No, I’m me. Tired with the weight […]