Poet * Educator * Miscellany
I am in the process of rearranging my priorities. It’s exhilarating and scary at the same time. I did this exercise, called Clarity Cards, and there I was shuffling all the things I am responsible for, all the things I love to do, all the places I have to show up and then trying to prioritize them. It helped when I narrowed the scope to say 6 months, because priorities shift and expectations change.
Continue reading “Priority Time”
For many reasons. I am writing. This.
Continue reading “Not so much this time”
It’s incredible how the time flies because I seriously feel like I sent a newsletter out last week and it has been months! The last one was on the winter solstice actually, so maybe I am on equinox time. (I also feel like 2019 was last year, so there’s that, too.)
We’ve entered spring and there are tiny crocuses along our street and those bursts of yellow and purple give me hope.
Continue reading “To A New Season”
I hope your day is filled with as much light as you can find – the good news is it will only be brighter going forward. It is difficult to believe this right now when the news is grimmer than grim.
Continue reading “Wishing you light”People are losing it. Really.
Across the political divide, we are all on edge. The anti-vaxxers who believe the end of the world is coming. The bullies who attack ER nurses. The rage filling town halls over critical race theory. The parents sending their unable-to-be-vaccinated kids to school and the rage they feel at those who flaunt their maskless faces. The suspicious glances in the store. The fights at school and on the internet. Even, let’s say, the bad art friend.
Things are bananas.
Continue reading “What is this rage?”Inside my head is a furious network of words, ideas, concerns, fears, questions, lists, anxieties, dreams, and the like. All the different parts of me having to do so many disparate things and it’s a field day inside. So welcome to the inside of my head, where I am going to invite you to bounce from one subject to the next letter-style:
Continue reading “It’s that time of year again”This is the summer interlude. A check-in with a promise. Although I doubt any of you are waiting with bated breath for my next missive, I promised myself that I would make this a more regular occurrence.
It’s summer and we’re in a big transition phase here. Liv has graduated 5th grade and is moving to middle school. We are emerging slowly from the pandemic and still keeping an eye on those variants and the vaccination rate. I’m still in the process of mourning and grieving and processing.
Continue reading “Change is in the air”I’m still in the process of mourning and grieving and processing. My sense is that the grueling grind of capitalism will not let us pause and reflect and take stock. This has to happen individually between meetings or while driving your kid to and from school. We don’t know how to mourn collectively in a healthy way. After 9/11, we had these patriotic overblown events where we dive deep into the myth of our exceptionalism. More flags, more military bands, more words like freedoms, and very little reckoning. Of course, this is the plan because it feeds into our notions of power and entitlement. And if we really did reflect, we might see the ways our country is in the wrong.
Continue reading “Reckoning Debt”I was really honored to be nominated by my MFA program to write a poem for the undergraduate commencement at Pine Manor College. This poem was to celebrate their graduation after one of the most difficult years: “Now That This Is Over, What Do You Plan To Do Next?”
Continue reading “Commencement”Dear Friends,
Our innate desire to see things get better is being challenged daily. Every time I get myself stabilized, sense that I might be moving forward towards something, I get upset by the news. Even with the joy of a new administration, so much damage has been done and it’s hard to see a way through it.
I gain ground in this pandemic and then lose it. Doesn’t it always feel like a swirl of emotion — of joy and despair delivered together in one big wallop?