Category Archives: Writing

A meditation (fretitation?)  Dear Reader, Why is there no schematic for a poem, please?  When I, say, build a towel cabinet, done. Visible. We can all agree that it’s a towel cabinet.  I put together an outfit. Even if it doesn’t win “Outfit of the Damn Year,” it’s an outfit, and if it covers me,Continue reading “Reaching for Poetry, Ending Up with McDonald’s”

Dear Reader, Word Raccoon began the morning by testing the solar lights predawn and yanking them out of the front yard and tossing them over by the fence when they didn’t light up. They may or may not eventually make it to the thrift shop. The problem is that even if they worked properly, sheContinue reading “Timed Success”

Dear Reader,  A thank you to Bruno Mars, for showing up on the radio this morning and accompanying me to the café with Just Might. (We will not be doing a deep dive on the lyrics; we just appreciated the energy.) Also for covering the music here that is never to my taste, but whichContinue reading “Narratively Overcommitted”

Dear Reader, The travel laundry is washing. The bags, books, and items accumulated over the past few days of dunes traveling have been (mostly) put away. For once I remembered to reapply sunblock often enough to avoid a sunburn! Eventually, I will have to find new homes for Word Raccoon’s latest nature treasures, which I’mContinue reading “Each Pebble a Poem”

Dear Reader, Word Raccoon has invented a mathematical system regarding Coke Zero that cannot be peer reviewed because no qualified scientists are brave enough to examine it closely. While it might be akin to what the internet is calling “girl math,” being a feminist, she rejects the term.  It begins before every trip, the mathing.Continue reading “Raccoon Math”

Dear Reader, (Please read the title of this post using Tommy Lee Jones’s tone when he says “This is my happy face.”) This is my summer reading list. Just kidding. I don’t have a summer reading list. I have books I might read during the summer. I have books I think I should read duringContinue reading “This is My Summer Reading List”

Dear Reader, I’m beginning to see the same writing topics repeated in articles and writing forums: avoid adverbs, add sensory information, show don’t tell, write every day, on and on. Not to say that’s bad advice, but hear me out, dear reader. (I am preparing for a trip, so this will be just the beginningContinue reading “Literary Murals and Pocket Soup”

Dear Reader, The sun only woke after I went into its bedroom multiple times this morning, pulling on its big toe, and not really even then. As soon as it finally rubbed its eyes and stood up this afternoon, Word Raccoon grabbed both of my hands and the laptop and rushed outdoors. I, meanwhile, amContinue reading “Solve Literature for X and Y”

Dear Reader, Today’s poems written: “A Class in Common,” “Cat in Irises,” “Xylem and Phloem,” and “Untitled.” They were all odd little poems, not strange for my work, I know.  The first is me struggling with the title of the collection The Gospel According to Shrug, because if you know me, you know I probablyContinue reading “Sonshine and Cat in Irises”

Dear Reader, WR is ready for lunch. Her options are a salad or chili, and I barely got out the word salad before she snapped at me that it will be chili or nothing. She is a little chilly herself, she said, thinking the pun would work. It did. Her little furry face is stainedContinue reading “Plastic Spork Energy”