I am teaching poetry workshops again, so last week I asked my students what they like to write about. "Failing," one girl said and I scribbled it down furiously, in both the ways I can mean that. We live in a society that focuses on the negative, on the ways we fail, on how we're... Continue Reading →
small good things
Here is a list of nice things people have done for me lately: After I had coffee with Margret, she insisted on giving me and Holden a tour of the remodeled Blair library where she also insisted on buying Holden some children books A colleague from a decade ago contacted me and told me single... Continue Reading →
Holden’s fuzz
On an airplane, Thursday, 8/23/18: The clouds, from above, look like Holden's fuzz. From up here, I can see how they clump and pull away and I think, there must be a poem in this. Maybe it's in how Holden lies on the couch pulling fuzz apart. Maybe it's in how he sits up and... Continue Reading →
the long game
I wish there was a machine that could accurately measure sadness, and display it in numbers that you could record. And it would be great if that machine could fit in the palm of your hand. I think of this every time I measure the air in my tires. ~"Men Without Women" by Haruki Murakami... Continue Reading →
scratch tickets, rain, snake skins
It is the time of year for birds on a wire and rain and long lines at traffic lights in school zones. Last night I walked with my friend in the rain to buy scratch tickets and there was a tree with leaves red already. I know scratch tickets are mostly a waste of money... Continue Reading →
these days
I have lived on my own for nine months, but these days are my first when I'm not in school. For nine months, I have taken care of my children during the weekdays, during half of the nights, and I have read and I've written. I've thought only sporadically about my future. In School allowed... Continue Reading →
frat nucleus
Two years ago, I conceived a fraternity with my friend while we were just a little shitfaced at my first residency. It was a kinship of writers who share writing processes, drinks, and laughs. Today, not only does it live on, but it is a nucleus of sorts. The program seemed to swirl around us.... Continue Reading →
cheerios ground into the carpet
I'm going to write my own "Summertime Sadness" song and it's about a parent who longs for the school year back, for a few hours to herself again. It isn't natural to parent alone. It is a two-person job, maybe three, maybe eight. I don't parent alone, actually, because Steve parents them half of the... Continue Reading →
this process so sacred
It is coming to an end, my MFA. A week from Saturday, I will be finished. I wrote to my friend about our loss of this process so sacred, but with the gain of knowledge and motivation and friendship. I met her two years ago when we were new students. We met drinking vodka on... Continue Reading →
