Today I head out to Northeast Oregon for a writing conference and retreat at Fishtrap. I’m one of the five fellows (that sounds funny… but I mean myself and four others have a fellowship for the week)– and I’ll be taking a writing seminar/workshop/class three hours every morning with the writer of one of the [...]

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Awesome news. WS Merwin is such a sweet, spiritual man–a Buddhist and Environmentalist– who lives in Hawaii. (pic from Univ. of Arkansas Daily Headlines). And, he’s 82! Today NPR interviewed him (click to listen) for just a couple of minutes and he read this poem, so tiny and beautiful: Separation by W. S. Merwin Your [...]

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Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsberg 1956 My favorite postcard of all time.I think I bought it when I was about eighteen or nineteen, as a sensitive young gayboy in San Diego. Peter Orlovsky (on the right) was incredibly beautiful and also a writer, but definitely inspired some incredible poems by Ginsberg, his partner of 30 [...]

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It’s been over a week, sorry, since my last post. Lots going on– school is coming to a close– I finish teaching the last week of May. I cannot wait. I’ve rented an office with a co-worker of mine–it’s beautiful, pics to come! So I plan on spending my summer writing–especially since I have literally [...]

Posted in books, fiction, my latest man-crush, my writing, nonfiction, poetry, travel, writers No Comments »

Been wanting to do something crafty lately. Paint. Collage. Make soap. Make something. I get restless when I haven’t created something in a while. Not that writing isn’t creating but a novel is such a long process that I need to feel that I’ve finished something, you know? A couple of weeks ago Ted and [...]

Posted in Uncategorized, crafts, my writing, poetry, writers 1 Comment »

Did I mention I finished my cactus garden a few weeks ago? I don’t think I did. I took this beat up, decrepit old wooden bucket that was on the side of our house. And turned it into this. …and now it’s completely thriving. The poetry of the earth is never dead.  ~John Keats I [...]

Posted in my plants, poetry, writers 2 Comments »

Marginalia mar·gi·na·lia Pronunciation: \ˌmär-jə-ˈnā-lē-ə\ Function: noun plural Etymology: New Latin, from Medieval Latin, neuter plural of marginalis Date: 1832 1 : marginal notes or embellishments (as in a book) 2 : nonessential items <the meat and marginalia of American politics — Saturday Review> <–I discovered this fascinating artist, Ira Joel Haber, online and this is [...]

Posted in art, collage, my latest man-crush, poetry, writers 1 Comment »

Poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning carried out one of the most famous romantic correspondences in literary history. They first introduced themselves by epistolary means, and fell in love even before they had met in person. In 1845,  they wrote 574 letters to each other over the course of twenty months. They secretly got married [...]

Posted in food, my plants, poetry, ted, writers 1 Comment »

<–Snow in a can makes a great beer cooler!* Just a quick note. An hour ago was in my studio trying to get the printer to work and then Sarah-smile from upstairs came down to help me and then Abby-pie came over too and we got to talking about love and dating and boys and [...]

Posted in Vermont Studio Center, books, fiction, my writing, poetry, writers 2 Comments »

I was trying to come up with a good title, and was going to call this 2nd night, etc, but it’s really the 3rd night here of the 2nd full day. So, VSC 2. I think i’ll probably start just numbering the posts. I don’t think i’ll be able to do them every night once [...]

Posted in Vermont Studio Center, books, my writing, poetry 2 Comments »