Isn’t it amazing how books deliver just the message you need at the moment? I’ve been playing hide-n-go-seek with that #$%^ novel I thought I had finished last summer. But in my deepest, darkest mind I know there are still revisions that I need to make. I had just about  convinced myself that I’d never…

According to Kim Addonizio in her wonderful book Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, Allen Ginsberg adapted the traditional haiku form to create what he called American Sentences: seventeen syllables, no intentional line breaks, no required seasonal reference, but an “Aha!” at the very end. In addition to being fun, these sentences promote…

All too many days my journal pages are a wastebasket of stuff that tumbles out of my head. But the words count as writing, because there are days when I learn something just by writing. Yesterday the discovery was about my love of purses and tote bags. On Wednesday, while Duncan the Dog was getting…

It’s good that I don’t play poker. I could never decide what to discard and I’d lose my pennies every time. How do I know this? Just look at the folder I carry marked “Revisions.” It’s full of what in card games would be discards, threes and fours, no trumps. (Okay, I once knew how…

One of the funniest things I’ve seen online this week is a video of ducks. These birds were apparently kept in landlocked pens until they were rescued and introduced to a pond. First, they had to be herded into the water by a crew of determined human beings. Once wet, they scrambled back onto dry…