Climbing ivory pages into alternate destinies, blooming wisdom of sages, deciphering mysteries: love surpassing the ages beyond childhood memories. Today, I decided to try out the #Whatdoyousee prompt from Sadje’s Keep it Alive blog. The prompt is to respond to the image of the child with the book. I immediately thought of my earliest memoriesContinue reading “Poem: Forever Reader”
Category Archives: Motherhood
Poem: Work in Progress
Family: work in progress. Like tree branches arching, you will grow: the forks you choose for each limb unknown until you reach the intersecting valleys, relying on gentle hands and histories. Father’s journey: tapestry of mysteries; Mother’s stories: secreted into galleries. All life’s answers unneeded to go. Love, dirt, and time; our truth will follow.Continue reading “Poem: Work in Progress”
Poem: Summer Brain
Whispered wonder under the apple tree. Branches reach down gently to brush small heads, spill emerald secrets, ivory glee, springtime mysteries eager to be read. Above, joyful clouds freckle shadows. Sun light baptizes their investigation. A zephyr sighs, twigs twirl, a gray squirrel runs, rose-breasted robins trill near the basin. Little eyes move on, butContinue reading “Poem: Summer Brain”
The Toughest Lesson
A year ago this week, I finished the last infusion in my treatment course for stage 3 breast cancer. It was technically determined that I had no evidence of disease in the fall of 2020 after six rounds of “hard chemo” and surgery. (I jokingly refer to my fall 2020-spring 2021 course as “chemo light”.)Continue reading “The Toughest Lesson”
Learning to Let Go
My husband and I loaded the kids, the dog, and everything else we needed for a couple days on the road into the car late Friday morning. He’d already been into work earlier that morning, into which time I’d tried to force an entire day’s worth of grading, emailing, and student meetings while our threeContinue reading “Learning to Let Go”
Stubborn or Naïve
Undeterred a new explorer slips through the waterfall, dodging gray, crumbling blocks of the world we coated with layers of paint until we hid its curves and built its locks, sidesteps pebbles for unknown reaches where our souls don’t live for paper notes and clocks but dreams that blossom from dawn’s promises before we learnedContinue reading “Stubborn or Naïve”
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: 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”
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”
Words and Coffee Writing 