Happy Mother's Day! Panoply Magazine just published my poem "subterfuge" in which our heroine fiercely and subtly protects her privacy and dignity on a random weekday in high school. If you are a nurturer of any kind, but especially the mothering kind, you are no doubt aware of the need to take care of yourself first. We learn this as we grow, regardless of sex, regardless of gender. But

Demeter, Copyright 2013-2014 HoneyJadeCrab from DeviantArt Happy to announce that on this Day 8 of National Poetry Month, my quatern about Demeter, goddess of the harvest, entitled I, of the Grain has been published in The Rat's Ass Review. Many thanks to Roderick Bates for selecting it. You can read it here! Demeter is the food bringer, the law bearer, the mark of agriculture upon

Salmon River Hike In T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland," Eliot famously called April "the cruelest month." This might seem unfair to some, but I think it's spot-on. You can be cruel without knowing it. The NaPoWriMo Day 4 challenge is "to write a poem in which you explore what you think is the cruelest month, and why." I'm all too happy to explain it to you. April can be gorgeous. Just look at

Today, my inspiration comes from The Daily Poet, a calendar year's worth of writing prompts by Kelli Russell Agodon & Martha Silano. I highly recommend you pick up a copy if you're looking for a prepared daily bundle of fuel to ignite your imagination.  Today's challenge? Write a concrete poem. Sometimes called pattern or visual poems, they are written and presented in the shape of the subject of

My grandparents, before deployment, WWII  Look at this photo. The gorgeous knockout and that strapping young soldier are my grandparents. Today's NaPoWriMo prompt challenges us to "write a poem that takes the form of a family portrait." I wrote two. One for each of these people who are larger than life to me. The thought of encapsulating all that they are and everything they mean to me in

Backyard cherry blossoms on this gorgeous April Fool's Day It's April again–the month when this fool engages in public acts of exhibitionism. Beware! I like to skinny-dip in pools of words. I'm daring myself to write at least one poem draft a day and am inspired by a private writing challenge and safe forum that poetess Jennifer Givhan has offered up. (I recommend you keep an eye out for her

#BirdieSanders All leaders have known this for millennia:  there is skill in battle. (Just ask millennials.) Subtle nuance can propel a cause and fuel a movement or sink a campaign. Just talk with Howard Dean about his scream. Or ask Mitt Romney, "Who let the dogs out?" I was thinking of this when I wrote a poem inspired by Sun Tsu's The Art of War, recently published in NonBinary Review.

Evelyn evolving into a microscopic Amoeba image ~ Rick Hutchinson Happy to report today that "Temporary," a poem I wrote about a piece of me gone missing, is featured in the current Spring 2016 issue of Sein Und Werden.  The theme of this issue is "Corpus: The body whole and the body dismembered, idolised and idealised. Replication... labour. The flesh of the fruit; the fruit of adolescence.

The original matryoshka set by Zvyozdochkin and Malyutin, 1892 I'm grateful to Mothers Always Write for publishing my poem "Nesting Dolls" today. It's my reflection on all that parenthood contains as well as its outgrowths. Please check it out here and then explore the site. It's filled with meaningful accounts of what it is to be a mother from a talented assembly of writers.

Adam and Eve Claude-Marie Dubufe, 1827 I always thought that Eve got a raw deal in the Judaeo-Christian creation myth. She makes one misstep and is punished unduly with menstrual cramps and the pain of childbirth. But in retrospect, someone else may have had things even harder from the start. Before the snake and the apple make their way into the story, did Adam have agency in any of his

Trigger warning: vegetarians, humor alert! after two mint juleps American Pharaoh would be downright yummy in a burgoo So strange that a gorgeous animal such as this would be sponsored by Yum! Corporation. V. Espinoza looks tasty, too. In a polka dot kind of way.

The view from my secret vantage point What better way to usher in the month of May than to hike to hidden waterfalls with plein air painters? I shinnied up trees, scaled boulders, and shuffled up scree slides just so I could spy on my friends from above. I watched handfuls of hikers take in the view and they inevitably took pictures of the artists and their easels the minute they noticed

 Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day!  (Yep, it's a "thing." Click on the link for more official details.) Judi Korpi Webb and I have some sweet little pocket-sized haikus just for you. Or if they're not your style, I suggest you write your own and carry them around in your pocket. Better yet, write a bunch of your own haiku on different scraps of paper and #poetrybomb the pants pockets of clothing at

I've got all kinds of time for Michelle Obama. Her light is bright and only seems to grow more radiant the more she shares of herself. Whether she's helping service members, youth with education goals, or getting kids to move, she puts herself out there with passion and unharnessed joy. Most First Ladies have looked overly practiced, careful, guided and guarded, but not Michelle.  Her hyper

 I'm not sure when the author/artist Austin Kleon created his first poem by redacting words from random text. But I do know he published his first book of these poems in 2010, called "Newspaper Blackout" which I learned about after having purchased and read his creative manifestos "Steal Like an Artist!" and "Show Your Work!" Yesterday, I stumbled upon an invitation to create my own blackout

Yes, I watch The Voice. Silly as it is, I enjoy it and look forward to family commentary while cuddling on the couch eating popcorn. We make it an event, and I feel this event calls for a whimsical poem or two. How about some Clerihew?* Blake Shelton Made Cassandra sing Elton. He's never heard "America" by Simon and Garfunkel So I guess he doesn't have all of the oldies in his arsenal. Old

Bouquet Today by Jason Baskin There's such a difference between people who are marking time and lively spirits who savor life each moment. When Jason brought this quick sketch home, I knew he captured a certain joie de vivre that the model must have exuded.  I love the light and life in this piece. The woman is right there in her moment, enjoying the heck out of that bouquet of flowers. She is

The Path The Path at Rood Bridge Park by Jason Baskin They felt like sunlight on my shoulder before I turned around. They walked in my direction two adults father and son holding hands. The son had Downs his hair was growing back from chemo. Their enjoyment of the day the moment the walk the togetherness radiated outward touched me patted me on the shoulder kissed me on the head assured me

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"I Want You," the ballad of a creep, first debuted on this album. Has anyone ever shown too much interest in you? Has anyone ever treated you as an object rather than as a human?  Without going into the particulars, I can tell you that one such hollow manchild wanted me for his trinket. On a campus of thousands, he invaded my real estate. He routinely followed me into the dining hall and sat

Darn! This item is no longer available. Do any of you have "No Soliciting" signs by your front door? If yes, are they effective? Do they serve to repel all those who would have you buy whatever it is they are selling? Does the sign work like garlic on vampires, or do people ignore it and ring your bell anyway? I've got to confess: I'm horrible about turning people away. When we were younger

Image from Brainless Tales by Marcus Water is the stuff of life, and, in order to grow up, you have to absorb as much as you can. But not too much. Everything in moderation. I had to play with this apparent contradiction—this conceit— and what better form than the ghazal?* Swill Ghazal  Two sisters drenched and laughing together, side by side, step forth knee-deep, splash each other giggling

My baby cares for babies now. Damn, I'm tired. The teen and the 'tween finally hit the sheets. I'm ready for sleep before they are. Or at least I'm able to admit how zonked I am. When they were babies, we would tuck them in and watch a movie together before bed. Now that one is taller than I am and the other is borrowing my clothes, we go to bed and then they watch a movie. I served dinner

A live wire in the morning, he crashes by mid-day? This villanelle* is for Jason, my in-house artist, who works tirelessly each day but still manages to wake up whistling and ready to entertain.  Inspired by Allison Joseph's prompt: "Write a poem about someone or something your speaker loves so much or feels so strongly about he or she is willing to get up early for it." The One Who Sleeps

This book can change parents! Each year, I read a freight truck full of picture books.  I head straight to the Rose Room when I enter Powell's Books. There, I pick recommendations off the shelves, plop down at the wooden kiddie tables, and explore that fertile backyard where words marry pictures and make babies together. Like all babies, picture books are perfect. And like all babies,