In the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about the common penchant for outrage, how people seem to need (or at least really like) to find something to brace against. To, in Leslie Jamison’s words “be shaped by opposition.” I see it in my kids, how they want to be angry at someone (usually the…
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The other week at art we were talking about the importance of writing when we are up as much as when we are down. Letters from a past self who can remind us of what was good when things seem low. The opportunity to look back and survey our lives through our journals…
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A few nights ago, I was at a beautiful dinner with some of the loveliest people. One of them said something that while ordinarily would have certainly made me sad or worried, on this night brought tears to my eyes. I blinked rapidly for a minute, but couldn’t hold it. I had to excuse myself…
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On Mother’s Day, the kids and I have a tradition: we go on a hike by the river. I wish we did it every Sunday. But our weekends are so completely hyper-scheduled with games and practices and obligations. I spend more time sitting on the sidelines with people I barely know who happen to have…
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Why not a super close up the nose shot? I know it’s poetry month. There is all this division around genre–this is how you write fiction, this is how you write poems, this is how you write a personal essay, a lyric essay, blah blah blah. But the best pieces of writing have some…
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The picture above was one I took from the back corner of an auditorium where I was lucky to get a place to sit on the floor, with my back against the wall, behind the speakers, to hear some of my literary heroes talk about process and feminism and the body in literature. That crowd,…
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Earlier this week, I was honored to recieve an awesome award from the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore and my handsome tuxedo-clad son took this picture of me. There was something about the experience that felt kind of like being at my own funeral. I don’t know how to explain that further, but I think…
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This week I had writing groups with people interested in learning from me and one another, poems in my inbox, sunny days, Cinnamon Toast Crunch on sale at the grocery store. I hung out with friends and family, made it to yoga, wrote some things. Kids snuggled beside me. My apartment is clean. I…
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