Creative Writing Blog
I Said To The Wanting Creature By Kabir
Do you ever have times when words are both helpful and insufficient? This weekend was one of those times. A few months ago, my husband's much younger brother, Jonathan, died of a heart attack. On Saturday, we attended the memorial service. Jon had been living with...
The power of your voice
Monday was Martin Luther King Day—it was very cold and I stayed inside, baked some bread, spent some time with Eric and Simone, worked on an essay, and had dinner with some friends. All day, I was also thinking about the legacy of Dr. King, who is such a model of how...
A Winter Solstice Poem
A friend recently sent me a winter solstice poem. I was happy to be reminded of this poem, and thought I’d pass it on to you–it’s so nice to be able to share what we enjoy and find helpful. The solstice is the darkest time of year, but it also is a time that reminds...
Joy Harjo’s Poetry
People have widely different experiences of Thanksgiving, which can bring up all kinds of things.I want to share a poem by Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation and the current national poet laureate. In our complicated history and nation, I like to return to...
You Are Enough
This happens to me every year: suddenly, without my knowing quite how it happened, it’s the holiday season again. The days are getting darker, and I wonder where all the time has gone. Life passes so quickly! It’s a challenge to keep up, to pay attention and to...
Practicing with Silence
I was away last week at a silent Vipassana retreat in Western Mass. For three days, we meditated at least 10 hours a day and had very few external stimuli. In meditation, we bring our attention inward, to our own internal sensations and practice noticing—but not...
Killer Whale Moms, Women’s Wisdom, My Book Party, and more
So what do I want to have in common with a killer whale mom? This probably isn’t the question that you’ve been wishing I’d answer, but I’ll tell you anyway: it’s not a hunger for seals; it’s not my weight; it’s that when an orca mother’s reproductive years are...
The High Shelf is here!
The High Shelf is here!!! This is a special moment—and a bit surreal. So much work goes into making any book, and I can say this book in particular has been such a labor of love—and time. As many of you know, this book has been over a decade in the making, and it...
Poetry, Emptiness and Mindfulness: the Cover of The High Shelf
The cover of my poetry book, The High Shelf, is an image of a painted sky with a few birds soaring in it. In the poem from which the book takes its title, I imagine a high shelf suspended in the sky without supports: Explanation of the World It was a shelf–– a high...
