Most great celebrations, like my daughter’s wedding last month, begin long before the celebration itself. Yards of cotton chosen years ago, to be turned into a quilt. Endless bottles of vodka turned into homemade gin, enough for 180 miniature party favors. Evenings with my daughter and a letterpress kit, hand-stamping each letter of each name … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Tony Hoagland
Hello friends, Happy fall to all! Here in Minneapolis it’s crisp and cool and invigorating, my favorite kind of weather. I’ve just scheduled my fall series of workshops and would love to see you on my (virtual) porch for an exhilarating, fun, intensive afternoon or evening. All my 3.5-hour workshops are taught via Zoom and … Continue reading Fall Workshops!
(Back to our regularly scheduled programming next week!) Wedding Haiku My beloved child found a great and true love. Our hearts are filled with joy. Continue reading (teeny tiny interstitial) Poem of the Week, by me
As a little kid I had a baby doll I loved and played with, but no Barbies – I hated them. They scared me. Maybe because they were so grownup-looking. Those big boobs, the feet permanently stuck in a pointing-down position. I didn’t want big boobs, high heels, fancy clothes. Ken creeped me out too … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Ron Koertge
A long time ago, one of the men from my writing class at the Minnesota AIDS Project, a beautiful writer whose memoirs I still keep in a “Favorites” file, invited us all over to his house for a potluck dinner. I remember he was lying on the couch when we arrived. He hadn’t felt well … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Gerald Stern
When Alison shuffles up on a playlist, or in a store, or on the radio, I take it as a sign: There’s my song. A sign of what, who knows, other than that it brings me back to high school, waitressing at Friendly Ice Cream, and the guy at the counter who said Elvis Costello … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Luci Shaw
My grandmother McGhee lived her entire life in the Hudson River valley of downstate New York. She was a young mother in the Great Depression, a farm wife, a high school English teacher, a gardener, canner, cook, needle pointer and housekeeper extraordinaire, and the kind of grandmother who always shook her head sadly at my … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Paul Zimmer
I was a girl, walking along the Charles River in Boston on a sunny day, no one else within earshot, when suddenly a young couple got out of a car next to me, the girl in a tight sundress and heels, big smile, radiating friendliness. Her male partner silent, a half-smile on his face. The … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Joyce Sutphen
So last week I was talking with this guy at a party, both of us horrified by this country’s lack of affordable housing, the grinding pain of life on the streets or in a tent city. How to make things better? Tiny house communities, with onsite health care and social services? Onsite laundry, a door … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by John Daniel
So here’s the way it’ll go down when I win the Powerball: a million each to my nearest and dearest and three million to me. With the gazillions left, we’ll set up a foundation to make the world better, with the caveat that every penny has to be spent within fifteen years. None of that … Continue reading Poem of the Week, by Joseph Hutchison
a journal of growth, change & experimentation
Reflections from an Older Perspective
Goodies from my mailbox and camera
Telling all sides of the parenting story
Waking Up to Your Dreams
On James Baldwin and Diverse Literature
Putting those recalcitrant toddler cancer cells to bed...
your own PDK for writing
a collection of beautiful words.....
Objects, Memory and Meaning
If it can't be said in a hundred words, then it can't be said in a thousand.
sewing a handmade wardrobe
"drink from the well of your self and begin again" ~charles bukowski
Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
Alison McGhee 