HUFFPOST PERSONAL My 11-Year-Old Patient Was Pregnant. Here's What I Want You To Know About Being 'Pro-Life.' "Our medical assistant came to me, panicked, and handed me a positive test. ... 'Run it again,' I sputtered — to buy some time and gather my wits and hope by some miracle it would produce a different result." By Dipti S. Barot, Guest Writer May. 3, 2022, 08:40 AM EDT CATHERINE MCQUEEN VIA GETTY IMAGES One morning this past December, I woke up early to listen to judges with lifetime appointments question lawyers in a process that may ultimately rob people of their reproductive freedom. And week after week since then, I continue to hear judges and lawyers and politicians speak on issues they have no business speaking on ― as far away from people and their real lives as voices from another planet. During these moments, I think of a little girl in an exam room I met many years ago. She was … [Read more...]
Read Absolute. It is a wonderful poem!
I've been reading a poem-a-day in my email input box for years. And every once in a while I come across a poem that seems to take my breath away. The one I'm sharing with you today is that one for now. I hope you love it as much as I do. Congratulations Jacqueline Woodson for your wonderful poem. Absolute Jacqueline Woodson The summer I was ten a teenager named Kim butterflied my hair. Cornrows curling into braids behind each ear. Everybody’s wearing this style now, Kim said. Who could try to tell me I wasn’t beautiful. The magic in something as once ordinary as hair that for too long had not been good enough now winged and amazing now connected to a long line of crowns. Now connected to a long line of girls moving through Brooklyn with our heads held so high, our necks ached. You must know this too – that feeling of being so much more than you once believed yourself to be so much more than your … [Read more...]
Peach Ping
Last night at the end of our Father's Day dinner, our son asked me if I had my mom's recipe for Peach Ping. And he wanted to know if I would give it to him or better yet make it for him. I told him not only did I have the recipe; I would gladly make it. And that simple question brought up a very sad memory. The last time I made it was in August 2013, a few months before our dear friend Cynthia died. I made dinner for our group of friends, including Cynthia and her husband, and baked my mom's peach ping for dessert. That was the last time all eight of us were together. I found the recipe in my mother's recipe box. One of these days I will copy the recipes each one meticulously typed on now-yellowed four by six cards and publish them in a book to share with my family. Here's the recipe for Peach Ping: 10 to 12 peaches ½ cup butter or margarine 1-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed 1 tsp grated lemon peel 2 … [Read more...]
April is National Poetry Month
I started reading poetry in grade school although I didn't start writing poems until much later. Once in a while I'd write a poem or two when I was upset emotionally or feeling lonely, but not regularly until after my son's suicide. It was the only way I could deal with my grief. It still is. Reading poetry regularly is a given. During April, National Poetry Month, Knopf sends me a poem a day, and the website Poem-A-Day sends me a poem every day all year round. Sometimes over a dozen poems are in my reading queue. I also write poems regularly - this month especially since I'm participating in a poem a day challenge. Poetry is my favorite writing genre. It's hard to know if my poems live up to Lori Anne Ferrell's criteria as discussed in her LA Times Op Ed piece below, but many have been published, so they must resonate somewhere. A book of poetry that's worth $100,000, and so much more by Lori Anne Ferrell "A few months ago, I was talking to a former student about how … [Read more...]
Getting back into the writing groove
Our Grand Canyon adventure and my husband's healing process have taken me far afield from my writing life. Everything just seemed to stop on November 16. Interesting that I had carefully packed some paper and a pen so I could write a journal entry after my walk down the Grand Canyon that day. Unfortunately I never used them after hearing the news of my husband's injuries and the challenge I faced in getting back to the rim and to the Flagstaff Medical Center to be with him. However, in this past week I've sat myself down at my writing desk and managed to write a couple of poems in response to Robert Lee Brewer's poem a day challenge that ended on November 30. And it felt good to poem (as Brewer likes to say) again. I am also putting together a new chapbook that I'll submit for the Frost Place contest that's due on January 1. Though I'm not back to my writing in full force yet as you can see from how long it's been since I wrote my last post here, I'm getting back … [Read more...]
Putting together a book of poems
I've been putting a poetry manuscript together in response to a submission request from a press asking for books written by women over fifty. I figure I'm well over fifty, so why not? The requirement is to compile a book of sixty to one hundred poems. I've been gathering my poems for the book during the last month or so. I've written a lot of poems - certainly more than the requirements of this submission, but the big question is: how many of them are good enough to put in a manuscript hoping to win a $1000 prize. As of today, I think I've completed the gathering phase. The next step is to organize them. I really had no idea how to do that. I've submitted to chapbook competitions before but never a full-length book. So I went to my poetry book shelf and looked at how some of my favorite poets (Ellen Bass, Billy Collins, Maxine Kunitz, Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, etc.) do it. Some just number the sections, some use the title of one of the poems in the section as the title of the … [Read more...]
Two newly published poems
I've had several poems published over the last couple of months. I wrote the first in response to one of Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides Wednesday prompts. I think it's the first one of his I ever responded to. The prompt asked us to: "...write a box poem. This poem is either about a box or includes a box somewhere in the poem (or title). Don't be afraid to poem outside the box this week (sorry, I had to say it)." Thank you Editor Ted Badger for including my poem in your Lucidity Poetry Journal International (a venue for understandable verse). Things in Boxes He left a black canvas box filled with his music recordings next to his bed, the cassette tapes neatly packed in order of performance. And on his closet shelf we found a cardboard box filled with little games, cars, toys, 1984 Olympic souvenirs, and Russian buttons and buckles his uncle brought back for him. He fit these favorite things together like an intricate puzzle, before he left his body for … [Read more...]
A progress report
In John Lennon's song, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), he sings: Life is what happens when you're making other plans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_j-tpmdPlI My mother always said something similar: Man plans, and God laughs. Well, life was sure happening to me last week. I worked diligently on my book, as I said I would do in my previous blog post, for the first three days, and I actually made some great progress. Then boom! It all fell apart. My husband, Bob, woke up early last Thursday morning with shortness of breath. I took him to urgent care and he got an EKG. With those results the doctor there said take him to emergency at our local hospital. And we were off and running. Two and a half days later and tests to rule out a heart attack, pneumonia, blood clots in his lungs, and congestive heart failure, he was feeling better. So they sent him home. Less than 24 hours later, he was short of breath again even worse. This time we called his own doctor (who had … [Read more...]
A couple more PAD poems
Today I completed Day 14's poem. I'm almost half-way through Robert Lee Brewer's November 2015 Poem a Day chapbook challenge. Though I'm not ecstatic about my product, I am happy that I'm writing a poem a day. My long-term consulting job and vacation took me out of my writing routine. This challenge seems to be helping me get back to it. Day 9 Write a work poem. For some folks, writing is work (great, huh?). For others, work is teaching, engineering, or delivering pizzas. Still others, dream of having work to help them pay the bills or go to all ages shows. Some don't want work, don't need work, and are glad to be free of the rat race. There are people who work out, work on problems, and well, I'll let you work out how to handle your poem today. Three things saved my life after my son died: writing, working out, and working. No, I don't consider writing work. It's my healing balm, whether I'm creating a poem or ranting in my journal, the more I write the better I … [Read more...]
A couple PAD poems
I'm knee deep into poem writing these days. Here's a couple from the first four days of the November 2015 poem a day - PAD - chapbook challenge. I haven't done a careful edit of these yet, but you'll get the idea what I was up against given the prompts. I always enjoy Robert Lee Brewer's prompts. They are designed to stretch our skills and give us a topic we can have fun with - or not. Day 2 Write a surrender poem. A person can surrender to the authorities or a mob, but people can also surrender to a feeling or to music. Or leftover Halloween candy (at least, my friend has had that problem). I hope you surrender to your poetic impulse. It was almost 11 pm when he arrived at Grand Central. Tall, lean, perfectly quaffed in a hand-tailored sports jacket. But not to look too stuffy he wore it with jeans, an open collared blue shirt, polished tan wing tips, and carried a scuffed old briefcase. He walked through the station without looking side to side, with an air of … [Read more...]
Please join the November PAD Chapbook Challenge with me
For the last several years I've participated in the Writer's Digest poem a day chapbook challenge in November and April. It is managed by the WD poetry editor Robert Lee Brewer. The prompts are always very interesting. The challenge is work but a lot of fun. So, in case you'd like to join me, here are Robert's guidelines. Please sign up and you'll receive a prompt from Robert every day from November 1 to November 30. I'll be sharing some my poems here throughout the month. Here's Robert: Here are the basics of the November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Beginning on November 1 (Atlanta, Georgia time), I will share a prompt and poem each day of November on this blog. Poets are then challenged to write a poem each day (no matter where you live on the planet) within 24 hours (or so) from when the prompt is posted. Don't worry: If you fall behind or start late, you CAN play catch up. Poets do NOT have to register anywhere to participate. In fact, poets don't even … [Read more...]
A new poetry project
Poetry has been on my mind this past week. I submitted a new poem to the Writer's Digest poetry contest, and I sent several poems to my friend Keith Alan Hamilton as my first contribution to our joint endeavor of an anthology of poems and smart phone images. I'm also again participating in Robert Lee Brewer's November Chapbook Challenge although as of today I'm about six days behind. Since I won't share the poem I submitted to the contest, here are a couple from my project with Keith. I'd love to know what you think. Morning Walk I walk in the dark of the morning. watching as gray clouds move toward the horizon's edge, and the sun begins to peek out. It's almost a tug of war, the dark gray versus the sun's rays that burst forth to take over the night sky. Then, almost in an instant the sun's warmth rests on my shoulders and I forget the chill of the dark. The Lone Poles The … [Read more...]
Inspiring Spaces Blog Hop: share what ignites your creativity
My friend Cate Russell-Cole has started the Inspiring Spaces Blog Hop, and I had to participate. I created the room in our house where I write six years after the suicide death of my son Paul. It was the last room he lived in. I've written about this room and how meaningful and healing it is for me before A version of the following poem appears in my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide. Making Room for Me After six years I stacked Paul's books and records, once in alphabetical order on his closet shelves, in boxes out in the garage, and finally cleared away all the dust. I recreated his room and closet, with a new hardwood floor, a bay picture window, deep taupe walls, a white ceiling and crown molding, and file drawers and book shelves for storing my books and poems. I refurnished his room in shades of black and orange. The sofa is like a futon because he … [Read more...]
A poem in three acts
I've mentioned before that I write to Robert Lee Brewer's Wednesday poetry prompts that he posts on his Poetic Asides blog. Robert is one of the Writing Community Editors at "Writer's Digest Magazine." He also provides a prompt a day during his April and November poem a day challenges. Some Wednesdays writing to his prompts comes easy, some days it does not, but I always copy and paste them to a running list of his prompts with my sporadic poem attempts. I also religiously take the PAD challenges - just to keep up my poetry training, if nothing else. Last Wednesday Robert's prompt said: "Write a poem in which you've imagined a story for a stranger. Maybe someone you see on public transportation, a couple at the laundromat, or a neighbor. Is the person more fabulous than expected? Fallen upon harder times? Exactly as one might guess?" This one hit home because a couple of years ago I decided to write a series of poems about people I didn't know. I found it to be a very fun … [Read more...]
A new poem from Esalen
Looking down from the road I spent five days last week writing poems at Esalen, a beautiful site high on a cliff in Big Sur CA. I go to this particular workshop almost every summer. Led by poets Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, and Joseph Millar, I always learn some lessons about writing poems, I hear excellent poems read by my fellow poets taking the workshop with me, and I never lack for something to write my poems about. This year I wrote six poems using prompts given at the end of each day's craft talks on: 1) a coming into consciousness poem, 2) a poem with sentiment and no sentimentality, and 3) a poem using various line break and syntax techniques. We also beg our leaders to give us a list of ten words and an assigned phrase with which to create a poem. Once in a while we're asked to include our pick of a body part, season of the year, or time of day. Writing to a list of words is like solving a puzzle. But sometimes the poems turn out just plain silly. This year I wrote a … [Read more...]
