Because the other half of my very small novel-writing group has The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson on her desk, I decided to dig out my copy. Years ago when I was at sea on my draft of my novel about the further adventures of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Pearl Prynne, I read and reread The Plot Whisperer–it’s […]
My good friend Francine sent me this blessing. May it bless you, too. Beannacht / Blessing John O’Donohue For Josie, my mother On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. And when your eyes freeze behind the grey window and the ghost of […]
I won’t even try to eulogize the fabulous Mary Oliver — too many people have already done it for us. But here, just in case you missed it, is NPR’s tribute, and the poem that adorned my office door back in my teaching days: Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do […]
I keep Rainer Maria Rilke’s Book of Hours near my bed, and this morning I opened it and read this poem. Because once someone dared to want you, I know that we, too, may want you. When gold is in the mountain and we’ve ravaged the depths till we’ve given up digging, it will be brought […]