Category Archives: Writing

Now Playing: The Great Remember by Steep Canyon Rangers  Word Raccoon and I have been flirting with a cold. She insists we’ve dodged it, though I still sense some passive-aggressive sniffling. Last night, while we were curled up and theoretically resting, she sprang up from her seat and demanded we record “You Know, You’ve BeenContinue reading “Bib Overalls, Christmas Trees, and I Read a Poem (NOT in That Order)”

Word Raccoon, my writing persona, has news. The good kind. My poem “So Much Depended” will be published in Moonstone Arts Center’s upcoming anthology Remembering Ezra Pound. We’re so excited! I’ve been, like many others, transfixed by William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow,” that Imagist gem of a poem that you can’t unsee. That wheelbarrow.Continue reading “So Much Depended on a Literary Friendship”

Word Raccoon says she wants a “Start Over, But Make It All Hank Green” button on YouTube.Actually, no.  She wants a “Make It All Green Brothers” button. Because YouTube is starving us. As if insomnia isn’t bad enough, it’s trying to cure it with: What we want in our YouTube feed is: Hank Green explainingContinue reading “Word Raccoon Wants a Green Brothers YouTube Algorithm Button and She Wants It NOW!”

Word Raccoon shuffled into the room this morning wearing yesterday’s eyeliner and carrying a mug of tea she didn’t make. She sat at the table like she was in a chapel and whispered, “It’s today.” She meant this: My poem, “Mutual Mass” appears today in The Dew Drop.  Many thanks to them. https://thedewdrop.org/2025/10/26/drema-drudge-mutual-mass/ (The originalContinue reading “Word Raccoon Puts on Her Sunday Best (Kind Of)”

I blame myself. Or, okay, maybe Word Raccoon. Probably her.  I knew we were spending the night at the hotel adjacent to the event last night. I knew WR and I would need caffeine the next morning. And yet, contrary to other trips, I did not pack a single tea bag. Nary a Coke Zero.Continue reading “Tea, Brunch, and Tears”

Now Playing: Sail Away, Sweet Sister by Queen  I’m supposed to laugh and enjoy myself tonight.  When we bought these tickets months ago, I said something like, “I know it’s an extravagance, but who knows? We might need a good laugh when the time comes around.” I meant because of politics.Because of the slow, relentlessContinue reading “Hoping Not to Cry in Front of Steve Martin and Martin Short. Also, WHAT Color is My Dress??”

Word Raccoon and I have a race going on over here today. Context incoming. We have an event coming up this weekend, and the reminder the venue sent out said you might want to carry a clear bag to speed up security. Damn. I hadn’t thought of that. I used to have a clear purseContinue reading “Dueling Stadium Bags”

Content warning: drug use, grief, bad dinner choices   Yesterday I went to a public event. Two women asked about my sister because they’d seen the obituary. It made it feel more real. It was comforting and also exhausting. (Isn’t it interesting how some people’s way of just sitting with you, their presence, their small talkContinue reading “Some Days a Sandwich is Enough”

Last night I stayed up way too late submitting poetry. I needed to do something I didn’t have to focus too hard on, and it felt a little like normal life. Something exciting happened on the writing front over the past few days, but obviously it’s been hard to let it register. Five of myContinue reading “Circle the Wagons “

Last night, a moth began dancing confusedly around the dining room light fixture. It went around and around, dipping, up and down, like it was lost.  I’m not someone who believes a lot in the woo woo. I don’t entertain the supernatural much at all, but I had to wonder. I’ve heard that moths symbolizeContinue reading “The Moth”