I originally wrote and posted this in 2016—after the election, but before we’d had a chance to see exactly how horrible the current administration would be. Here is the finished version included in This Is Not the Book That Will Save Your Life. (Note that the ‘six ghosts’ reference below is intentional. Although Scrooged is a re-telling [...]
Trixie woke me up this morning at the exact time of the solstice—2:44 a.m.… The misplaced glow of my sleep-disrupted night throws everything off— not the slightest bit but enough to make me question what I see when I open my eyes I thought the cat was sitting there but she’s still right here keeping [...]
Normally, even when I am feeling depressed about it, it still feels like Xmas. This year has been different—with all the hand-wringing, angst, and anxiety about the election, it has not felt even a little bit like Xmas… This year Xmas is neither white nor blue nor happy nor merry nor joyous nor peaceful nor [...]
For this month’s writing challenge, I have chosen the rimas dissolutas, a form in which (according to A Poet's Glossary, by Edward Hirsch) ‘each line in an unrhymed stanza rhymes with its corresponding line in a subsequent stanza.’ This, I am finding out, is harder than it sounds… From twenty to twenty-four in the blink of tired eyes [...]
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a poem that begins with a line from another poem. I chose the line dive to the bottom of the ocean with me from ‘What to listen for in a cold war of visual cues’ by Stephanie Mason. Dive to the bottom of the ocean with me (If only I could convince you…) [...]
Back to the pantoum again. (Note that, although there is an actual word, carbonnade, that refers to Flemish beef stew, carbonade in this poem is a made-up word.) What from the carbonade tempts you to follow at such close distance when fifty percent don’t know who sent you enough to care about your view askance to follow at [...]
Ah, the things that movie quotes bring up! This poem starts with a line from Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence… ‘The past…again and again…’ What of it? What does it do but remind me of all the mistakes I’ve made? All the unfulfilled promises now left wanting because I now want what I didn’t [...]
Sometimes I return to the old stories, in hopes that I might tell them better… I remember feeling that way every time I heard that song swimming in a hazy sea and everything was breaking down That hungry feeling travelled with me from train to train and storm to storm Unexpected complications fell me at [...]
Not much writing these last couple of days. I feel I have been repeating myself a bit too much lately… Oh, it burns so sweet! Wouldn’t you love to have more? I promise no dramatic pauses we can swing it out like we never did before I can imagine in vivid detail the course of [...]
As a moderate drinker, I don’t much like the stronger stuff (generally speaking, anything stronger than Bailey’s). Once or twice a year, though, I do enjoy a bit of brandy… 1 Caramel or with coffee smooth in amber deceptively intoxicating bewitching to the senses tingling upon my tongue Given enough time I would drink you [...]
