Happy Birthday USA!
I pledge allegiance to this sand and gravel road that runs between the river and my house, clumps of California poppies rangy stalks of fragrant fennel and burgeoning fig trees [...]
30
Jun, 2013
22
Jun, 2013
Tending My Muse
It’s been a year now since I’ve retired from teaching, and I’m sure it will surprise no one when I say retirement is GREAT! Every now and then a friend [...]
14
Jun, 2013
Poverty and Our Public Schools
I chose to make my career in public education and I have become a fierce defender of it as a democratic institution. I worked as a special educator with [...]
11
Jun, 2013
Crown in Heaven
When I was teaching special education classes I often took my students out to grocery stores, fast food restaurants or shopping malls to teach them how to behave in community [...]
9
Jun, 2013
My Teaching Life
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 25, 2013 I’ve been posting pieces about my writing these past few weeks, and let me be honest here: that’s been easy. Writing is most often a [...]
9
Jun, 2013
Writing the Amherst Way
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2013 A few weeks ago I had the privilege of writing in a workshop with Pat Schneider, the author of Writing Alone and with Others, and [...]
9
Jun, 2013
The Next Big Thing
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 26, 2013 Thanks to my friend June Gillam for “tagging” me to promote The Next Big Thing! In June’s latest blog post she wrote about her upcoming [...]
9
Jun, 2013
The Flint Girls Go To A Fire
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 26, 2013 One more poem as we near the end of National Poetry Month. I wrote this rather prosey poem about my Mother and her family twenty-something [...]
9
Jun, 2013
How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Psychopath?
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 20, 2013 The other night in my writing group I got starting writing about a woman I worked with many years ago. I am convinced that this [...]
9
Jun, 2013
My Writing Practice
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 12, 2013 I realized early on that if I was going to be a poet, a notoriously underpaid and underappreciated profession, then I would need a second [...]