How to follow a spark
When I was a child and was naughty (not really naughty but perhaps headstrong and wayward), my father would occasionally say to me, “Are you a witch or are you a fairy or are you the wife of Micheal Cleary?” … Continued
This end of something. This start of something.
In the middle of last week, my very last two BRILLIANT poetry students gave their colloquia and graduate readings. I knew it was going to break my heart, but I didn’t know how much. When I say that each student … Continued
A door closes – losing the UAA MFA Program
I dreamt last night that I was conducting a university-level poetry class on an open lawn to a large number of students. The dean and my father were there. But I was so far from the students that they couldn’t … Continued
The Practice of Submitting
Well, I certainly didn’t mean to be gone so long. Unfortunately, when things get super busy, my personal writing gets shuffled to the bottom of the stack – so for the last two months I have been all Kachemak Bay … Continued
Resurrection
For some people, the story of resurrection begins with a cross. For me, it begins with song. Yesterday morning, walking the dog beneath a grey sky, collar turned up against a chill breeze, I heard the first calls of the … Continued
The Wobble
Alaska is in that wobbly season when we can have a 40 degree, perfectly blue sky, sunny day followed by sub-zero, grey sky, snow falling. I remind myself each year that March and April are cold months. Often grey months. … Continued
Holding two things
This morning, an unseen wind illuminated by an unseen light source manifested as a great bright spume of snow lifting from the peaks across the bay. The mountains lay, as they always do this time of year, like a pale … Continued
Dream of the seed beneath the frozen soil
This is the time of year that I trip myself up. I expect spring to wash over me, soft, sweet air and green things popping up everywhere. Instead, we get snow, then perhaps a day of thaw, ice, single digits … Continued
Winter beach wisdom
February. A grey white month. More light but still cold. The forecast is for two weeks of snow showers. A month that still belongs to winter though the light lingers later now, long slow sunrises and sunsets when the clouds … Continued
A Handhold
What handholds have you? When all around you there is difficulty – some of the season, some of the cycle, some of the seemingly endless pandemic, some of the suffering of others, some of the suffering of ourselves? I have … Continued