A Teenager's Guide to Feminism

I'm so proud to have a poem in A Teenager's Guide to Feminism, a new anthology from Pear Shaped Press. 

Many thanks to the editors for putting together this powerful collection of  essays, letters and poems. 

To read more about the book, click here. 

The Poetry Box LIVE!

 I'm looking forward to reading and listening!

Some Good News

 Thank you to Shawn Aveningo Sanders and Robert Sanders of The Poetry Box for this honor!

For links to these poems or to check out all the offerings at The Poetry Box, you can click here.

Hope is a thing with feathers...*

         

or wrinkles

                        

                or threads

           

                                                                                 or bold letters  –                                  

                                                                            

                     hope stands tall

                            

or waves,

               

                           flaps and folds

                                                    

then squares its shoulders

                                               and winks,

                                                                                                         

                                                             

                                                hope fills its lungs with love,

sets sail

                                         flies like veined wings

                                                                                                                                and seeds.

* Apologies to Emily Dickinson

Imagine All the People

If art nurtures empathy, maybe we should all be creating stories and poems and paintings all the time. 

Here's a Halloween story that was published a while back by Imitation Fruit Literary Journal. 

In this piece, I write from the points of view of two people who are very different from me: The Japanese widow of a music icon and her son. I was inspired by Yoko Ono, but the main character here is fictional. In my imagination, I created a link between me and a woman I’ll never meet, a connection that feels as real as the sidewalks and curbs and trees that run along my street.

For Annamarie

Here's a poem I wrote for my best friend from sixth grade. Many thanks to Randal A. Burd, Jr. for publishing this piece in the August 11, 2020 issue of Sparks of Calliope: A Journal of Poetic Observations.

Dear Writers: Puppies and Kittens!

A relaxing presence: Lucy the cat
with me in 1974.

Dear Writers,

Puppies! Kittens!

Now that we're home all the time, the comings and goings in the neighborhood take on more significance.

On my pandemic walks, I go bananas when I see our neighbors' pets. The sight of a pair of big goofy paws makes me giddy, giving me a moment of relief from my anxieties. This spring, my son and daughter and I saw the sweetest gray kitten in a neighbor's yard. We were so happy, we stood there on the sidewalk and marveled at its long ears and cloud of fur for several minutes, just like we used to relish visiting the elephants swaying and chomping on hay at the zoo. About a week later we saw signs on some telephone poles for a lost kitten named Pico Buggs. The photo showed gray fur and a pair of long ears. 

No! 

We felt like we'd lost our own beloved pet. Happily, about a month later we saw Pico (now with the lanky legs of a tween) back in our neighbor's yard. Hooray! 

Up and down our emotions go, depending on what's happening around us. On the last weekend in August, we were in our backyard reading and snacking on tortilla chips when we heard the blaring horns of hundreds of counter-protesters, which sounded like an army bearing down on Portland's city center.

Puppies and kittens. Puppies and kittens. We need benign forces in our lives right now. I hope the prompt below brings you some sense of comfort or even pleasure. It may seem elusive, but joy is still around, sunning itself in a neighbor's yard or maybe bounding through your memories and imaginations. Perhaps we can make it come alive through our writing.

Writing Idea

Don't touch that newspaper! Let's turn our thoughts to more pleasant things for a minute.

You might start your writing with something soft and warm and see where it goes. Maybe it will bring you a sense of calm to write about a former pet; or a heartwarming moment with a friend; or a particularly happy, relaxing gathering or trip or dream. 

Some of you have lost beloved pets in the last year, so you might also use your writing to honor them and your grief.

If your writing ends up taking you to a dark place with claws and fangs (Tygre, tygre burning bright!), go for it. The act of creating is a positive thing.