Tag: Creativity

My Grandmother’s Scrapbook

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held together by shreds of faded fabric, pages torn, inside inked December 1914, that cursive once on chalkboards all across america, found it in the trash where my father had placed it, rescued history, my hands cradling the past, how could you throw this away?, i thought, but never said a word, her poems carefully pasted next to drawings of men and women, little girls, dolls and dogs, lakes with sailboats, christmas greetings from the 20’s, dance cards, foxtrot, lindy hop, young love in pencil marks, pressed carnations, color long gone, diaspora of flower petals wedged into the treasure’s every crevice, army v. navy football ticket, pink powder puff once pressed on a face, my grandmother’s, her life still here, with me forever. 

Rembrandt & the Original Selfie

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it used to be hours and hours of sitting staring into self, into a mirror, looking at facial skin, wrinkles, curved hat, tufts of hair, textured brushstrokes, somber color palette, a desire to paint that face, his face, my face, he thought, must be preserved, saved for the ages, or perhaps because it was always available, free model, he thought, whatever the reason, several selfies, over many years, and they took forever, each one, meticulous, now, we touch a camera app, press a white button.

when art influences life

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we must constantly look at things in a different way, mr. keating says in an empty movie theater, empty except for me and a friend, two amc rooms showing the movie at the same time, but everyone else went right, and we went left, so when robin williams stands on his desk, we stand, dead poets society, you guessed it, or you knew, to think that was 34 years ago, and who became a teacher and poet?

Thinking About Marc Chagall

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how to write about chagall? feels impossible to describe an unending dream of color, sky, moon, donkeys, chickens, man/woman sailing/flying through skies, love is so much of his world with flowers and everything magic, magical, to imagine, mystical, that feeling, when you pretend to be in the painting, who/what would you be? the tree? the violin? the rooster? the angel? the dancer? the sun? what/who? where will he take you? away, where have you been? inside his mind, your mind, our mind, our universe, marc chagall with a key, a brush, some paint, opens the door

My Favorite Writers/Poets

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mitch albom, jimmy santiago baca, sylvia boorstein, ray bradbury, raymond carver, pema chodron, ta-nehisi coates, pat conroy, e.e. cummings, emily dickinson, william faulkner, william finnegan, norman fischer, f. scott fitzgerald, nick flynn, natalie goldberg, richard grant, doris grumbach, thich nhat hahn, ernest hemingway, tony hoagland, zora neale hurston, jon kabat-zinn, mary karr, jane kenyon, ted kooser, stanley kunitz, anne lamont, li-young lee, philip levine, patrica lockwood, gabriel garcia marquez, peter matthiessen, frank mccourt, john mcphee, thomas merton, w.s. merwin, joseph millar, marianne moore, john muir, tim o’brien, sharon olds, mary oliver, pablo neruda, jd salinger, suzanne scanlon, shel silverstein, isaac bashevis singer, john steinbeck, wislawa szmborska, richard wilbur, c.k. williams, thomas wolfe, tobias wolff, richard wright

Writer as Quaker

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so much of life is waiting, for lunch, for the uber to arrive, for the plane to land, for night to begin, for graduation, you get the drift. and then there are quakers who wait to hear from god, sit in silence, just waiting. and this is me too, some days the words just arrive and I say, hello words, and we are happy together, one word emerging after the next. other days, i just read and read and stare and stare, sort of hoping that my fingers start typing something, but glad to be waiting. because, i don’t agree with tom petty, the waiting isn’t the hardest part, the waiting is everything.

My Alphabet Poem

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A-acorns, that become trees, big seeds, runner up, aristotle
B-butterflies, that become caterpillars, wrong, runner up, birds
C-candy, peppermint patties, product placement, runner up, cool
D-dentist, see above, little shop of horrors, runner up, doo-wop
E-everything, as in, i want all of it, runner up, earth
F-fern, wilbur, charlotte, templeton, runner up, farm
G-gas, petrol, fossil fuel, global warming, runner up, gun
H-hungry, as in, feed me, stomach gurgles, runner up, hearing
J-jungle, welcome to it, appetite for destruction, runner up, journal
K-kangaroo, the shoes you knew, 1980’s, runner up, keds
L-lyrics, we got fun and games, axl, runner up, lauryn hill
M-machine, rage, capitalism, scientific management, runner up, money
N-need, as in, i still want all of it, got to have, runner up, nothing
O-ocean, surf it, watch it, love it, moon waves, runner up, oscillate
P-perfume, fragrance, cover up sweat smell, runner up, party
Q-queen, as in, you are a queen, mercury, runner up, quiet
R-radio, am, fm, shortwave, fireside chats, runner up, racism
S-smart, as in, my boy’s wicked smart, runner up, skylar
T-teacher, we need more, learning, education, runner up, terrific
U-underwear, fruit of the loom, hanes, commando, runner up, unless
V-valuable, diamonds, friends, family, life, runner up, vaccine
W-wood, after the tree died, cedar, cherry, floors, runner up, wonder
X-x-ray, lead apron, teeth, bone image, runner up, xylocarp
Y-yacht, rock music, doobies, what a fool believes, runner up, yonder
Z-zoo, captured, monkeys, popcorn, languid lions, runner up, zebra

Let Technology Go

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Sit in silence, with screens in another room. Wait quietly 
for each word to arrive. Have faith 
that they will, that the universe will guide you/me/us.

Alone, we feel detached from the world where everything happens. 
Now someone is tiktok singing, now someone is 
posting a photo, now someone is smiling on a screen.

But no one is here in this room, which could be an ocean or
the branch of a tree, free to be. Dare we separate from the 
netflix masses and those who have lost their way? 
I understand them, I too have been lost
but now found.