Elizabeth Marshall, fellow Tweetspeak Poetry barista and mischief maker, shares a reflection on poetry to wind up our month of Making Manifest. Someday I’m going to meet this sweet spirit face-to-face, and I’m delighted to welcome her into this space today. Oh, and be sure to read all the way to the end… there’s […]
A Holy Awakening (Making Manifest: Week 4)
A Holy Awakening I’m sitting in the shade of the crabapple tree. The surface of the redwood picnic table is rough and weathered–like the dock. The dock that once gave me a sliver in the arch of my bare foot. The dock with benches for lakeside contemplation. Wild cranberries grew on the right, and the boat (I […]
Look. Light. by Laura Lynn Brown
I first met Laura face-to-face on a writer’s retreat at Laity Lodge where we discovered we’re both deep see divers–as in seeing deep. She makes music with her words and on her tin whistle. Some day maybe I’ll buy another harp–a small, portable one–and team up with her for a duet. Or not. […]
Still Saturday: Breathe
“Do you want to live in peace and hope? It can be simple. “All you have to do to live is insist on staying awake. Don’t flinch or fade; don’t forget or fake it. Just be. Accept who you’ve been made to be and let everything you do come from the impulses of seeking […]
Holy Collisions (Making Manifest: Week 3)
Day 15: Motion “We can choose to be stationary or we can choose to be still.” Day 16: Get Out “Maybe where you are and what you are doing this day is exactly right.” Day 17: Cycle “We are, at every moment, beginning and ending.” Day 18: One Winter “. . . our connections to […]
Late for Poetry by Lyla Willingham Lindquist
I’m so glad Lyla Willingham Lindquist adjusted some time to share a few poetic pearls here today as part of our Month of Making Manifest with Dave Harrity. Lyla and I have been online friends for a few years, and we first met face-to-face on the Frio River in Texas. Lyla makes me think and laugh, and is the […]
A Believable Witness by John Blase
I’m Snoopy-spin-happy today to welcome John Blase into this space as part of our series on Making Manifest. John knows how to pay attention, and when he bears witness, his words touch deep places. And someone who cries when Linus lights the tree and gives his that’s-what-Christmas-is-all-about-Charlie-Brown speech? Well, that makes them extra special. Welcome, John! […]
Still Saturday: Still or Stationary?
“We choose to be stationary or we choose to be still. “The stationary pilgrim always turns his head around to see what was or what could have been. He loses focus on the potential and possibility of now. So he stays in the position of inaction because he can’t imagine another way. Stationary is […]
Kissed (Making Manifest: Week Two)
I glance out my window at the crabapple tree. I wait all winter for it to burst into bloom. I watch the bright pink buds pop and the blossoms unfurl. But it’s all lasted this spring for only a brief breath, and already in the rain and chill of this week, the blooms have […]
To My Mother: A Villanelle
This Making Manifest study has me combing my blog for poetry attempts, and I ran across this villanelle (my first and quite possibly my last) written in response to a December 2011 poetry prompt issued by The High Calling and Tweetspeak Poetry. I wrote it a month after my mother died, and it seems right to revisit it as […]