Recently, the Tinderbox Poetry Journal Reviews Editor asked me to chat about some of the books I have been reading and some of the writing I had published since I was first in the journal in 2014. Check it out:
Continue reading “Mini-Reviews”Selective Memory
Here’s the thing — I was digging into my past online, via livejournal. Before social media, before we livestreamed ourselves putting on makeup, before we were texting, there was livejournal. As a writer, this form of daily writing allowed me to connect with others, folks who I would come to know very well without ever meeting them face-to-face. I read about deaths and births and breakups and looked at wedding pictures.
Continue reading “Selective Memory”In Sickness and In Health
Let’s take a moment to talk about health. As we graciously say, “to a healthy and happy new year,” implying that happiness and health are interconnected. Be well. Be best. Let’s talk about what it means when we are not well. Let’s talk about the difficulty of operating in this society when sick.
I have been consumed with health problems recently and am amazed at how it alters my life, my notions of time and space. How we operate in a fast pace in the healthy lane and then we are struck with illness, we can enter a whole new world.
Continue reading “In Sickness and In Health”It’s Been Awhile…
The only thing I can say is that I have had writer’s block. Mostly figuring out if what I write here has value to the folks reading it. Am I just shouting into the void? Do my words offer anything?
Continue reading “It’s Been Awhile…”Upcoming Readings
As much as I love October, I am excited for November this year because I will have the opportunity to do two readings supporting my new chapbook. Continue reading “Upcoming Readings”
Free Workshop
I am teaching a poetry workshop right here in my home neighborhood, Jamaica Plain. We’ll be at the JP library for 6 Saturdays, from 2-3:30pm. The first class is on September 7, 2019! Continue reading “Free Workshop”
Split Map is here
I can see forsythia bushes — bright yellow branches waving to me in the wind — and tulips and so many squirrels. They are trying to tell me that a real spring is imminent and sunshine will follow and oh they want me to mention… Continue reading “Split Map is here”
Take it to 43
this reindeer has a complex backstory and loves you.
Hello hello,
I have been out of the loop or rather too much in it to think about communicating via my lovely little letters. Here’s the thing, I’m 43 now. Usually I do birthday resolutions and I haven’t in a long while but I thought maybe today I would just word vomit some out. But then, sitting here, I came to realize that for the first time I am not really aching and not really wanting to make profound announcements of what I should do.
A burden of sleeplessness
In which I can’t stop dreaming
Dear Dears,
I asked Patrick last night when I would stop dreaming of moving and packing. Maybe when we buy our first home? And he said, Most likely not. Which while disappointing, I realized was most likely the truth. My feelings of rootlessness and abandonment have nothing to do with where I am currently living. It’s a constant theme of my life: trying to make a presence for my body and for my beliefs.
It is fitting that my poems right now are about place and dreams and not leaving places when I was totally uncomfortable because I wanted to be nice. Continue reading “A burden of sleeplessness”
Beat the heat, heat the beat
I hope that this August heat is finding you well. Patrick turned to me the other night when I was complaining about the heat and said, “You know, it’s only going to get hotter.” And it’s true. In that moment, I thought about our kids struggling to find water and felt so helpless.