June comes to a close and we can hope July is a better month. So much is happening these days. We must keep hope and keep heart and keep on keeping on. The writing world lost a a great one in mid-June when Rochelle Distelheim passed away. Friend, mentor, someone we all looked up to her for her writing style and her personal style. Chic. Smart. Witty. Insightful. Talented. A true friend. I admire her so. Her debut novel Sadie in Love came out in 2018 and Jerusalem as a … [Read more...]
Show and Tell For Grownups
Hello. I’m checking in to say hi, wondering how you all are faring. It seems to me everyone is anxious these days and maybe depressed and angry too. Keep heart. Here’s a new diversion for you. My friend Sharon Fiffer and her husband Steven Fiffer, both well-known Evanston writers, recently started STORIED STUFF: Show and Tell For Grown-Ups. It launched May 25. Here’s how Sharon describes it: “At storied-stuff.com, come discover the treasures that others hold dear—and … [Read more...]
Mother’s Day poem by Laura Rodley
It’s Mother’s Day weekend. Hope you have sunny weather ahead. How nice to open my email and receive this poem from Laura Rodley, the Massachusetts poet whose work is often featured here and in other places such as the New Verse News (where her poem Pushcart-winning poem Resurrection appeared in 2013). She is also a freelance writer for publications such as Country Folks. I can always count on her to give me something imagistic, evocative and full of feeling. These days … [Read more...]
How the egg came to be eaten (a myth of my own making)
How the egg came to be eaten Certain foods have their reputes. Oysters. Ginseng. You can guess why the tomato, fragile as a beating heart, is the apple of love. The egg used to be more potent, but on a laconic day when the spring buds sighed amid a dank appeal to dormancy, with Persephone just on her way back, Hera decided it was time her mate learn to appreciate her. She fed Zeus the first egg, knowing it would give him a woman’s pain. She’d forgiven him … [Read more...]
No fooling. Yes poetry. Yeah Valentine.
I’m not much in the mood for jokes this April Fool’s Day. How about you? Today is also the beginning of National Poetry Month. I hope to share some poems later this month. In the meantime you can check out the Academy of American Poets to see ways you can celebrate poetry. It was back in early February when Massachusetts poet and journalist Laura Rodley sent me some photos. The one that spoke to me then is the one featured below (Tiny Little Houses in Gypsum, Colorado, … [Read more...]