MN State Fair On-A-Stick (F. Scott Fitzgerald — A Night At The Fair)

MN State Fair — Fairborne & Fairchild, MN State Fair, St. Paul, Minnesota, August 2010, all photos © 2009-2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. The Minnesota State Fair kicked off this week and it’s time for our annual State Fair post on red Ravine. We’ve covered a lot of history over the years, including the [...]

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Exit The Telephone

By Bob Chrisman My mother met me in the lobby of the nursing home quite accidentally. She had taken her afternoon stroll pushing her walker up one hall and down another, visiting other residents she knew from the dining room. She arrived at the front desk as I walked in the front door. She looked [...]

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PRACTICE — SCARS — 15min

By Louis Robertson Scars tell a story, some easily remembered, some long forgotten. My oldest “memory scar” looks like the letter C on the webbing between my left thumb and index finger. I remember getting this scar like it was yesterday, although I think I was three at the time, when I accidentally closed a [...]

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Sound Falling From One World Into Another

By Teresa Williams Swans Boethius said: The now that passes produces time, the now that remains produces eternity. Small ration of eternity: the circular web dissolves; morning the fog passes over the lake and silently hovers, while the mother with the child in hand points to the white circle forming in the dark waters and [...]

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Sun-Drenched Sweet Corn (haiku)

Sun-Drenched Sweet Corn – 234/365, BlackBerry 365, Golden Valley, Minnesota, August 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. best part of Summer sweet corn from a local stand drenched in salt butter -posted on red Ravine, Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 -related to post: haiku 2 (one-a-day)

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WRITING TOPIC — SCARS

Scar Geography, Burn Scar From An Art Project, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.     Scars may be an odd topic, I know. But scars, random warrior marks across body (and mind), remind us that we’ve lived a full life. A nick, a cut, a slice. [...]

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da•da poetry

I seagulls and the smell of fish the earth smolders and smokes there is a fine line between solitude and loneliness I like to walk that line pink syrup flowing over rock the wheat field consumed the trees sandwich of bodies II nothing’s stable, everything shifts I fly through the clouds down below a brown [...]

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Back-To-School, Back-To-Routines

Flowers Closeup, images of flowers grouped together, photo © 2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. The girls were at camp for a week, which is the first time since this time last year that we had the house to ourselves. It’s late August, almost September, and this particular camp — which is always held the [...]

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Letter From Dad – November 22, 1978

From Dad, excerpt from a two-page letter that my dad sent to me when I was 17, November 22, 1978, image © 2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. From my Writing Practice on “Be Impeccable with your Word,” the first agreement of don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements: Dad was impeccable with his word. Words [...]

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PRACTICE: Be Impeccable With Your Word – 15min

You know what I think of when I think of the word “impeccable”? I see Felix Unger from The Odd Couple. Remember Felix? He was impeccable in his behavior. Tidy and organized, precise. Precision, yes, that’s what I think of. But the way this first agreement flows, Be impeccable with your word, well, the word [...]

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PRACTICE — Be Impeccable With Your Word – 15min

Out of all the agreements, this is one I strive to keep. It’s also the hardest. I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night. I dreamed about Ely, Minnesota, the deep forests of the North Woods, where most everything is impeccable with its word. The black bears, Lily and Hope, are [...]

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PRACTICE — TREES — 15min

By Bob Chrisman Trees hold a special place in my memory. I planted lots of trees in the yard of the house where I lived for the first 21 years of my life. The poplar trees went along the north border of the yard next to the gravel alley. They grew tall and then split [...]

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