Today is the first day of Story Circle Network’s 20 Minutes a Day Writing Challenge. This is a program that my daughter, Liz Beaty, SCN’s program director, and I, SCN’s educational coordinator, developed a few years ago, and we are proud to bring it back by popular demand. The concept is simple: Writing for 20…
Tag: poetry
Remembering Leonard Cohen
When Leonard Cohen died back in 2016, I felt as if I’d lost a lifelong friend. He was eighty-two then—still spry the last time I saw him perform, first in Las Vegas and then in Los Angeles. Ray and I even flew to Denver to hear him again, though that concert was rained out. We…
Similes Gone Wrong (and Right)
I know, I know—a deep dive into similes isn’t what most people rush to read. Dear Lord, you might think, just how wacked-out has this poor woman gotten that she is now worrying herself silly about the difficulty of a simple figure of speech? Dear, dear, the poor thing needs a vacation where there is…
Mrs. Mary Wilshire, A Sweet Memory
I wrote this a while back, but since this is my all-school reunion weekend in Bonham, Texas, I wanted to reshare this sweet memory. I took a private Speech class from Mrs. Mary Wilshire for two years when I was in middle school. I walked to her house from school along Agnew Street and I…
Combating the Mean Voice in My Head
Dear Mean Voice, I didn’t realize for a long time that you were as active a character in my brain as you are. You were much better then at throwing in a subtle negative comment only occasionally. But now you’ve moved to a new level. You are relentless about tossing in your opinion, which is…
Congratulations to Marie Howe for Her Pulitzer Prize in Poetry!
I love Marie Howe’s poetry. It is accessible, heartfelt, and beautifully expressed. I first saw her when she was a guest on fellow poet Billy Collins’s Masterclass and she read her poem, “What the Living Do,” which expresses her grief over losing her brother John to AIDS in 1889. I lost two brothers, John and…
Winds
The winds of my life have been persistent, like the winds in Texas can sometimes be. Constant, blowing your hair in your face, pushing your car door shut, sending that needed piece of paper in your hand skittering down the street as you chase after it. Not devastating winds, not tornadic whirlwinds or bend-you-double-with-their-force winds,…
Real Women Write Anthology: The Power of Friendship
I have two stories in the newly-released Story Circle Network’s Real Women Write Anthology, The Power of Friendship, Volume 23, and I also had the honor of writing the Foreward for the book. The anthology is an incredible compilation of friendship stories that I highly recommend. As I wrote, ““The essays, memoir pieces, poems, and…
Day 3: A Surrealistic Prose Poem (Or My Best Effort Since I Don’t Exactly Know What That Is!)
The National Poetry Writing Challenge today called for a surrealist prose poem. Google’s answer to what elements are needed in a surrealistic prose poem are as follows; The main elements of surrealism include the integration of dreams and fantasies into reality, the exploration of the unconscious mind, and the use of free imagination. Okay, here goes…
My Love Affair with the Wind
I am sitting in my little writing room listening to Gregorian chants. The heater is on and it’s warm and cozy. Outside, I can hear the wind starting to blow. Southern California has had very strong winds over the past few nights. They are revving back up tonight. I love a good strong wind. Not…
20 Minutes a Day 