I Saw Her Standing There Hey Dude I saw her standing there in the shallows shunning your advances as you teased her toes. She twisted and turned and swayed her hips as the wind whipped hair around her face. My heart went boom when I crossed that room and I longed to sweep her into my […]
T.S. Eliot: Poet to Work Day 2014
Last year I cajoled Emily Dickinson out of the house for Take Your Poet to Work Day. I forgot failed to tell her I wasn’t really going to work that day but that we were going on vacation, and she was going to meet a lot of new people and have a boatload […]
Compassion: What Makes My Blood Boil?
I stretch out under a crisp white sheet on a soft mattress, head sinking into the pillow. A student will do the procedure today. She applies the electrodes. One… two… three. “Yay, they’re warm,” I say. She cocks her head. “They are? Oh, they were sitting next to the machine.” “You should store […]
Inhaling the Unfamiliar
Our little group glues itself together when we leave the airport terminal. We jostle through a sea of unfamiliar voices and dark-skinned faces. “Miss. Miss.” I stare at the necklace that dangles in front of me, shake my head and smile. “No. No, thank you. No money.” A haze hangs over the hill, and I […]
Where is Your Safe Place?
Safe Places I remember a scorched blanket or crocheted spread wrapped around a baby doll. I remember sitting in the center after finding matches on the bedside table and Grandma Dummer’s yelp and a splash of water. I remember forts of fern with stems stomped down to form a center where I could hide when life got hot. On […]
Bread of Life
Books :: Yes, I did. I ordered another one today. I’m filling my basket like a starving shopper in the grocery aisle where everything tantalizes. I hope I can eat it all before it grows stale or moldy. Taste and see. Bread of life. :: Multiplied :: “I cannot live without books.” ~ Thomas Jefferson Of […]
Dog Court
On the 4th of June, 2014, AKC Canine Good Citizen Wesley and his cohort Susanna were convicted in dog court of shredding one crate bed, gnawing a hole in the center of one sage green bath rug, and terrorizing a toad. They also amputated the left toes and right pinkie finger of one doll baby […]
Life Through the Lens of Poetry by Elizabeth Marshall
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
