First, having scoured all the travel books, And sold my car, And gotten my passport and plane ticket I don my Backpack of purple canvas My silly “Earth” shoes My ‘70’s maroon jeans and top. I am on my way Not like Jack Kerouac with his drunken friends Cruising down Route 66 But on this…
Tag: writing practice
Attention Older Readers: I Need Your Advice
Okay, so it’s happened: I looked up and realized my kids have grown up. Yes, okay, so Sarah IS 29, Liz 26 and Rachael 20, but you don’t understand, I’ve been a Mother with a capital M for the past almost 30 years. And Ray has been a Father with the same focused interest. Alas,…
Flash Essay Prompt: Leonard Cohen, Brother George, and Recovery
As Leonard Cohen writes in his song, Anthem: Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There’s a crack – a crack – in everything That’s how the light gets in. I just read a fellow blogger’s heartfelt account of the bumps on her road to recovery from alcohol abuse. She spoke…
Prompt: Describe a Favorite Piece of Furniture – My Favorite Rocker
The bent wood rocker is brown with age, and the thin arms are lighter than the rest of the wood where human arms have rested upon them. The back has five wooden rungs that are attached to two long round pieces of wood that stretch three inches above the highest rung and all the way…
Prose Poem Prompt: Elusive Truth
She didn’t understand him. She had never understood him. She wondered why she loved him. He was elusive. He was foreign in his differentness. And yet. He pulled her. Yanked at her with his allure. Kept her aching for him in his absence. She knew they were no good together. They were mountain and plain….
Prose Poem Prompt: Hamster Wheel
Today is one of those days when I want to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Go sit out in the sun and just let its rays wash over me. Warm these cold feet of mine. Fill me with power from somewhere other than myself. I get tired of the need for constant self-initiative. When you are…
Nothing Like an Award or Two to Brighten Up My Day!
Much thanks to my fellow bloggers for two awards for my blog, 20 Minutes a Day. Thank you susanwritesprecise for the Lamplighter Award! This is for a blog you find that brightens the world. This award can be passed along as many times as you like and the recipient either accepts or declines and that’s…
Prompt: The Word “Encounter”
Encounter is a word that conjures up mystery. Encounter is not just a meeting, but something more fleeting. An encounter suggests movement, as if both parties are on their way to somewhere else and they briefly come in contact. One can imagine an encounter in a stairwell, where two people pass and glance at one…
Prompt: Reading and the Recession
Beloved. I need to read Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Rachael has asked me to help her with one of her college essays on the book, plus one of my high school students will be writing about it in his AP English class and asked for my help. I’m happy to read it; I’m delighted to read…
Early Sunday Morning and Changes in Life
The sky is gray today and I can see the leaves of the bushes bouncing in the wind outside the window. Traffic is light this morning; our usual busy street only sporting the occasional car. Cordelia, our corgi, is stretched out on the couch beside me, her head resting on a pillow. She was up…
20 Minutes a Day 