• Thoughts

    The Gift of Art

    My morning included a small scale existential crisis. Robert Bly’s Looking for Dragon Smoke, a book of essays on poetry, was at the top of today’s reading stack, and by the time I finished section three of the first essay,…

  • Poetry

    Too Wide, Too Wonderful

    The Writer’s Blood in my fountain penmakes me question my worthiness.But when have I ever believed I was worthy? After all, I grew up in a world of wordsdescended from the litigious Latin language,which allows no dissent from the sentence…

  • Thoughts

    Feeling the Emotions

    At least part of each of my days now includes reading old blog posts that I used to spend at least part of each day writing. So many words. So many ideas that belonged to others and that I thought…

  • Thoughts

    A Bird on the Wing

    A little Clairfontaine notebook with one entry: it was precariously perched among other journals on the shelf in my studio, and its paucity of purpose was bothering me enough to make me take it to my reading nest and use…

  • Uncategorized

    English Major Heretic

    No institutional training required It’s a day ending in Y, so I am thinking about or starting a new website. Actually, in this case, it’s a new Substack, and this time, I’m asking others to join me. In short, I…

  • Thoughts

    What State Do You Live In?

    My writing used to be characterized by perfect first sentences. Dennis would marvel at the way I’d struggle until a deadline to write something, then, at the last minute, craft the perfect opening line and have all the other words…

  • Thoughts

    Touching the Tangential

    My husband is a good man with a great mind that he is constantly exercising. His daily workouts include writing, something each and every one of us should be doing. Did you know that writing things with a pen or…

  • Thoughts

    Earth and Sky

    Ray Bradbury published (according to the Internet search I just did) more than 30 books, 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. There is simply no doubt that the man was a writer and knew what he was…