Author Archives: wordsandcoffee1

First published poems!

Some days, I liken writing poetry to stringing my heart and soul up on the clothesline for everyone to see, but there’s a beauty in sharing our deepest words. I have two particularly honest/intimate poems up at Flora Fiction’s Spring 2022 issue about New Beginnings, “Sunrise” and “Writer, Revisited”. Check out the free download hereContinue reading “First published poems!”

Poem: Multiperspectivity

Tiny faces peek out from the ledge of stone walls dusty from disuse, empty doorways and metal edges over places where windows used to fit. Once we belonged here, but we lost the pages; still a plaque grows cold against spring’s gasp, shrouded taut amongst the weeds, until the winds blow limbs apart, reveal lostContinue reading “Poem: Multiperspectivity”

Poem: Love Sprouts

Fog concealed the ghosts riding through our damp fields, forging their haunts in valleys still tingling with frosty breath and grassy hair. They ask questions I can’t answer about men who start wars and women who pick up the pieces and swear history won’t repeat. Are we driven to chisel our bricked hearts, our doubtsContinue reading “Poem: Love Sprouts”

Little Bits of Celebration

Here’s the literary magazine I refer to in the video: Flora Fiction. Check them out and give my poems a little love when the spring issue comes out. 🙂 Also, since recording this video earlier today, I received the news from my husband that our middle child is recovering from his surgery and doing well!Continue reading “Little Bits of Celebration”

Poem: Heart’s Shiver

Rolling farmland conceals cars in its dipping valleys. Corn stalks sway and tremble in dance before they flutter away like long-limbed birds over fields, peppering grassy bluffs with their stories. Telling my own story, I stutter and stumble back into my mind, heedless of my lesson. Rough edges of the highway caress the greying river.Continue reading “Poem: Heart’s Shiver”

Poem: Three Birdhouses

What the sellers left behind: three handmade wooden birdhouses, a flat, painted stone, the grime of an upended bucket, wild bushes, a leering gnome and a wind chime. What winter left behind: the crisp-crunch of tawny leaves and damp of thawing soil in spaces within sunlight’s reach, under shade’s spring recoil.

Where do you find inspiration?

It may be no surprise from my videos that nature is my favorite source of inspiration! I try to get outside each day, even if it’s just playing in the yard with my kids, but I find forests, mountains, and bodies of water especially soothing, and, for whatever reason, they get my ideas churning. Ideally,Continue reading “Where do you find inspiration?”

A Lesson in Resilience

I’m working on two writing projects at the moment: one is a novel and one is nonfiction. The novel is a thoughtful sort of love story that is as concerned about the characters’ growth as it is with romance. It explores issues that are important to me, including life as a young cancer survivor. ThereContinue reading “A Lesson in Resilience”