I changed my blog platform to WordPress. It’s been wonkier than I expected, but I’ll manage. Thank you for visiting and I hope to fill in more content over the next month. In the meantime, please take a look at blog posts I imported from the old site. They discuss how attending poetry readings as… Continue reading Here It Is
Austin and Ntozoke Shange
Austin was amazing. I found a full-time job at the Austin Community College library and an apartment within walking distance. I heard Spanish spoken on the bus. At ACC’s Rio Grande campus, I met Mexicans, black Americans, Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees, and Iranians here on student visas. I hadn’t realized how limited my opportunities in… Continue reading Austin and Ntozoke Shange
Women's Love Poetry
Erato Serenading Thalia, Euterpe, and Melpomene by Charles-Joseph Natoire. In the public domain. While I was living on Jenifer Street in Madison I discovered that a woman who had befriended me as a kind of kindred spirit in Anthropological Linguistics class lived across the street. D. was a poet. While still in high school one… Continue reading Women's Love Poetry
April: Time to Move Outward
This year, April seems to be inviting me to get outside of myself, to leave the house and think beyond my own life and memories. For reasons I don’t know, I vowed to visit a creek or a river every day this month. I have no special purpose in mind; I just decided to spend… Continue reading April: Time to Move Outward
The Writing Trance
Here is the recipe: go to elementary school. Attend classes, learn as you are able, sit in your seat, be surprised on the day the teacher says, “Write a story.” Put pencil to paper and find that arm connects to brain seamlessly. Characters, setting, and plot rush onto the page in a torrent until the… Continue reading The Writing Trance