My great-great-grandparents McCarty, whose portrait has tumbled through cyberspace over the years. Continue reading

Getting the hang of this new-fangled iPod blogging business these days. I like the small box for typing in ideas. It's so much less daunting than a huge screen. Add to that my one-fingered typing, and blogging is reduced to something more than 140 words, but less than an essay.... Continue reading

I'm testing a new app, so there isn't meant to be anything here. Continue reading

We'll see where this blog takes me. I've spent the past year NOT writing (creatively, that is) and disengaging myself from any creative writing teaching opportunities at work. I was bored. I didn't want to write another poem or develop an essay or plot a story. In short, I was... Continue reading

My stepmother's passing last week creates an obvious image of letting go, particularly letting go of expectations that certain relationships would be any different than they have been in the past. I've been releasing that mightily stubborn chokehold I've had on expecting people to be the way I want them... Continue reading

Did I cultivate a sense of wonder in 2010? I don't think so. If I did, wonder was a few paces behind a sense of gratitude and a sense of coming back to healthier living. Gratitude for all that I have has loomed largest this year. I've family, friends, work... Continue reading

What do I do each day that does not contribute to my writing? LOL. Sleep, eat and socialize. I don't really want to get rid of anything. I'm liking life the way it is. Perhaps if I taught in another discipline this topic wouldn't have me rolling on the floor,... Continue reading

Here's my belated entry for the Reverb10 project. The word for this year would be "readjusting" as I've spent much of the year reorganizing my life in these post-Dad's death years. I think, too, that turning fifty a few years ago has been slowly changing my outlook; I know that... Continue reading

The kids raced up the lawn and onto the Slip and Slide, where they slipped and slid, screaming and laughing and tugging their swimsuits into place. After too many cycles of bent knees sliding, they stopped, detached the hose from the game, and started looking around at everything in the... Continue reading

pigeon pose, pigeon toes pigeon prose, pigeon nose pigeon knows, pigeon no's find your inner pigeon release into the pose: waddle through garbage flying rat fly, inner pigeon eat trash scratch, scratch, scratch on discarded wrappers fly past the shoulders of distracted tourists bob and bow bob and bow gather... Continue reading

SSSPPRRRRIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG Continue reading

To The Quick Bone loneliness stirs grief in the marrow but not the soul-- The spirit knows to release, To digest what it can for this lifetime, To abide what it can to stay whole. 7/07 Continue reading

Easter is a promise kept; What's renewed once the cross is lowered, the body cleaned, the stone rolled into place. It's the moment after you've shrugged walking away from believing in miracles Continue reading

Good Friday and Holy Saturday are my favorite days in the liturgical year, in part because they are the least commercial, which leaves us with time to think. And being able to pause between crucifixion and resurrection, to be able to reflect, as an adult, the reasons for one's faith... Continue reading

with apologies to Hagen and Denoff, the writers of the That Girl theme. Diamonds, Daisies, Snowflakes, That Girl Childcare, Grad Schools, Mortgages Is That Girl She's up each night 'til three-- She's everything that everyone wants her to be! Therapy, Flat Feet, False Breasts, That Gal Anorexia, Divorce, Bankrupt Is... Continue reading

Like quilters of a century past, I am going to be keeping words, phrases and images in a scrap bag, right here, for those days when a poem, even a first draft of a poem, just doesn't seem to want to emerge. 1. In Parma, cheese farmers used to use... Continue reading

readying for the visit for cleaning the purple carpet. refreshing the sheets opening the windows and bring out the best quilt, the rose one from Cambridge when before we were we, I visited my sister and bought this quilt as a touchstone of having been there, in Boston, in April... Continue reading

I've spent the afternoon previewing poetry videos at the Poetry Foundation's website. While my intent is to cobble together some kinds of poetry videos as well as kinds of poetry for my Advanced Poets, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't finding some inspiration myself from what I... Continue reading

I have wanted to start all over again. I have wanted to start writing again. I have wanted to start writing in a new blog. A fresh beginning Moving forward in time like the fall iris that grows long after the others have bloomed and gone. Continue reading