Posted in Art, Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Practice, Relationships, Taos, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged artists, author interviews, becoming a writer, friendships, interview with Natalie Goldberg, loneliness, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away, teachers as mentors, the black dog, the writer's life, wild mind, Writing Down The Bones, writing memoir, writing practice, writing process, writing relationships, writing with students on May 13, 2008 | 27 Comments »
Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg, images provided by Simon & Schuster, photo of Goldberg © 2008 by Mary Feidt. All rights reserved.
On Thursday, April 10, QuoinMonkey and ybonesy interviewed Natalie Goldberg, author of the recently released Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. The interview was especially meaningful in [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Essay, Growing Older, Life, Practice, Seasons, Wake Up, tagged aging, Bob Chrisman, red Ravine Guests, the process of aging, writing about growing older on May 9, 2008 | 22 Comments »
By Bob Chrisman
Last fall, determined to catch the color changes in the leaves, I watched them turn from green to yellow, orange, and red. I would sit on the window seat in the front room and write about the colors.
One day…suddenly it seemed…the leaves had all turned. When did it happen? I had been watching [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Spirituality, Wake Up, tagged Babyland, cemeteries, changing seasons, Chinese Community Memorial, gateways, history of Minneapolis, Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, promise of Spring, the practice of haiku on May 9, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Gateways, Lakewood Cemetery near Lake Calhoun, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2008. Spring blooms in Babyland, near the Chinese Community Memorial. Photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
white-belled bleeding hearts
spring sweeps through silent gateways
cemetery pause
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, May 9th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Bones, Culture, Death, Essay, Family, Gratitude, Love, Memoir, Photography, Place, Relationships, Spirituality, Travel, tagged Beverly Donofrio, Catholicism, cemeteries, grandmothers, honoring the dead, honoring the past, Looking for Mary, mothers, New Mexico, Raton, religion, Virgen Maria, Virgin Mary, visiting graveyards on May 3, 2008 | 35 Comments »
Mother Mary as in a Dream, Raton, NM, photos © 2008 by
ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Last Wednesday afternoon I found myself in one of the best spots I could imagine, with my parents and oldest sister, and in the company of my beloved grandparents and best-ever uncle. We were in the cemetery in Raton, New Mexico, [...]
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Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Spirituality, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, tagged changing seasons, circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, Marija Gimbutas, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on April 30, 2008 | 8 Comments »
April draws to a close in a few hours. Though it snowed last Saturday, the light of April’s last day is clear and blue. The front yard is bursting with new life: erratic shoots of thick, green grass, day lilies skyrocketing out of tender wet ground, red-stemmed dogwood buds, one purple bloom in the [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Death, Life, Nature, Personal, Seasons, Skies, Writing Practices, tagged April full moon, changing seasons, Frog Moon, Pink Moon, spring in Minnesota, the practice of writing, writing about the moon on April 29, 2008 | No Comments »
I was torn. Pink Moon, Frog Moon, Moon of the Greening Grass. I liked Flower Moon and Broken Snowshoe Moon. I imagined fumbling out of a leather strap on an antique snowshoe, ice jamming the buckle, stepping out just long enough to sink knee-deep into what’s left of Winter. But it is the Frog Moon [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Haiku, Life, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Silence, Spirituality, Taos, tagged 1 Year Anniversary of Virginia Tech, anniversaries, black & white photography, Georgia O'Keeffe, homage, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Morada Walk, New Mexico, Penitentes, Taos Mountain, the practice of haiku, white cross on April 16, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Morada Walk, Taos Mountain in the background, white
cross Georgia O’Keeffe painted, Taos, New Mexico,
January 2003, Tri-X black & white film print, photo ©
2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
gusty April winds
ruffle brambled shoots of green
Spring bounds from behind
anniversaries
separate fiction from fact
squeeze light from the dark
photosynthesis
through veins of a single leaf
gives life to the world
-posted on red Ravine, [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art of Rebellion, Bones, Culture, Film / TV / Video, Life, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Secrets, Spirituality, Structure, Writing Topics, tagged 7 Deadly Sins, 7 Holy Virtues, 7 New Deadly Sins, Gandhi, Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins, Hieronymus Bosch, Se7en, the practice of writing, The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, Vatican, writing about the 7 Deadly Sins on April 15, 2008 | 18 Comments »
7, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Can you list the 7 Deadly Sins? I usually get to number 6 and fade out. I can never remember all 7. The 7 Deadly Sins began with Evagrius Ponticus as a list of 8 capital vices. A condensed version of the list [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Bones, Film / TV / Video, Gratitude, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Reading, Structure, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged celebrate poetry, giving back, Jim Walsh, Mary Oliver, Maya Angelou, National Poem In Your Pocket Day, National Poetry Month, New York City 6th Annual Poem In Your Pocket Day, Phoebe Snow, poet as rock star, poetry groups, Poetry Man, Queen Latifah, Ted Kooser, the power of poetry, the practice of poetry on April 13, 2008 | 57 Comments »
Pocket Poetry, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
April 17th is the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day. It’s part of the wider celebration of National Poetry Month. I went to my monthly poetry group last Friday. We talked about the life of Maya Angelou, read her poetry, sat [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Life, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Place, Politics, Practice, Topic Writing, Vision, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, honoring the dead, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, mirrors, the practice of writing, the process of aging, visiting graveyards, writing about growing older on April 11, 2008 | 22 Comments »
I’m looking at my ruddy face in a small, round, silver mirror. I look older than I remember. Thick eyebrows, salt and pepper hair; it looks the grayest to me right after a haircut. There is something about the way it lays across the black plastic smock, and falls in shredded pieces on to the [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Essay, Memoir, On the Road, Relationships, Spirituality, Writers, Writing, tagged An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott, Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird, books about spirituality, Carolyn Flynn, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, Operating Instructions, Ruth Stone, spiritual paths, Traveling Mercies, UCLA events on April 9, 2008 | 33 Comments »
By Carolyn Flynn
For red Ravine
SAGE Editor, author and redRavine.com contributor Carolyn Flynn recently attended “An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert and Anne Lamott” on the UCLA campus.
To loosen up before writing a new book, Elizabeth Gilbert invites one person to join her and live inside her head. She says she wrote Eat Pray Love as a [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Doodling, Great Places To Write, Practice, Relationships, Structure, Vision, Work, Writing, tagged 1 Year Anniversary of red Ravine, blog launch, red Ravine, the work of blogging on April 7, 2008 | 37 Comments »
One Year Today, celebrating the one-year anniversary of red Ravine, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
QuoinMonkey: I can’t believe it’s been a year since we launched red Ravine!
ybonesy: Me neither. It’s felt more like ten. (laughs) Just kidding. But I am amazed at how much energy it [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Photography, Place, Reading, Writers, tagged book readings, book talk, Bookworks, how to write memoir, independent bookstores, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, new book releases, Old Friend from Far Away, support Independent bookstores on April 5, 2008 | 24 Comments »
Heart to Hands, Natalie Goldberg at Bookworks in Albuquerque, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. (QuoinMonkey started the Writers’ Hands series; this photo is in that fashion yet not of the series. Deep bow to QM for the inspiration.)
It’s been almost a month since I went to Bookworks on Rio Grande Boulevard in Albuquerque’s Rio Grande valley [...]
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Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Culture, Labyrinths, Maps, Photography, Place, Practice, Relationships, Spirituality, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, Labyrinths, mandalas, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, walking the labyrinth, Wheel of Life on March 31, 2008 | 12 Comments »
I’m cutting it close on the March mandalas! In a few hours, it will be April. Though you would not know it by the 9 inches of blizzard outside the window. The Great Round: Stage Three mandalas follow one of my favorite forms — the labyrinth.
These have been the most fun for [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Bones, Culture, Dreams, Nature, Personal, Place, Practice, Recall, Seasons, Silence, Skies, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Ali Selim, March full moon, spring in Minnesota, Sweet Land, Will Weaver, Wind Moon, writing about the moon on March 29, 2008 | 10 Comments »
All is quiet in my home. I am staring out at wind rocking the trees. Mr. StripeyPants curls up on the wool blanket beside me. I connect to something wild in him. I’m reminded of my March practices – mandalas and writing about the moon. Where has she been hiding? I don’t remember seeing her this [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Authors, Bones, Books, Death, Love, Memoir, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Photography, Place, Quotes, Relationships, Silence, Taos, Writers, Writing, tagged Angelo Ravagli, D. H. Lawrence, epitaphs, Frieda Lawrence, Kiowa Ranch, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Not I But The Wind, relatives of the Red Baron, Til Death Do Us Part on March 16, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Not I, But The Wind, tombstone of Frieda Lawrence, near Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin
(Baroness) von Richthofen
In Memory of twenty five years of incomparable companionship - Angie
Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen was a distant relative of the “Red Baron” [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Life, Memoir, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Photography, Place, Writing Topics, tagged ancestors, cemeteries, epitaphs, excavating memories, family history, names, researching memoir, Shirley Ellis, the name game, what's in a name, writing about names on March 13, 2008 | 42 Comments »
I continue to pore through photographs and tapes of my trip to Georgia and South Carolina last summer.
“What’s taking you so long?” Monkey Mind yells from the wings (grabbing every opportunity to scratch his haunches).
“It’s a slow process, excavating the past,” I soberly reply. “Don’t rush me.”
Family history rises from the rich, black compost - memories, stories, [...]
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Posted in Bones, Haiku, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Writers, tagged ice, leaves, Nature's secrets, the practice of haiku, tracks, unearthing old bones, winter in Minnesota on March 6, 2008 | 13 Comments »
Tracks, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
March winds rock the house
the writer sits at her desk
unearthing old bones
-posted on red Ravine, Thursday, March 6th, 2008
-related to posts: haiku (one-a-day) and snow flying on ice (sound haiku)
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, Writers, Writing, tagged A Girl Named Zippy, A Million Little Pieces, Alexandra Fuller, Augusten Burroughs, Beverly Donofrio, Creative Nonfiction, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, fabricated memoir, Haven Kimmel, James Frey, Lee Gutkind, Looking for Mary, Love and Consequences, Margaret B. Jones, Margaret Seltzer, Mary Karr, Misha Defonseca, Running with Scissors, The Liars' Club, writing memoir on March 4, 2008 | 24 Comments »
What do James Frey — author of A Million Little Pieces — and Margaret Seltzer (who last week published a book under pseudonym Margaret B. Jones) have in common? Both wrote acclaimed memoirs that turned out to be fabrications.
Today The New York Times article ”Gang Memoir, Turning Page, Is Pure Fiction” detailed how Seltzer, who is white and grew [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Everyday Art, Gratitude, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Random, Relationships, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged accountability, actions speak louder than words, commitment, giving back, living the questions, Rilke, the value of the Arts, walking your talk, writing community on March 2, 2008 | 34 Comments »
Burning, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
How do you walk your talk? I’ve been thinking about what that means. I can write, paint, draw until I’m blue in the face. How does it change anything? How is it making a difference in the way I live my life?
A wise person once told me, [...]
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Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Family, Maps, Practice, Silence, Skies, Spirituality, Structure, tagged Bliss, circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, Marija Gimbutas. Goddess energy, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on February 28, 2008 | 17 Comments »
These are our February mandalas for The Great Round: Stage Two - Bliss. Again, we used Crayola markers and colored pencils. The feel of coloring the Stage 2 mandalas was very different than The Void mandalas of January. I pay attention to the colors I am drawn to when I sit down with the circles. My [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Life, Nature, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Secrets, Skies, Writing Practices, tagged Bone Moon, cabin fever, February Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse, Nature's secrets, Raccoon Moon, Snow Moon, winter in Minnesota on February 25, 2008 | 19 Comments »
The Full Snow Moon was bright, then blood red, the last Total Lunar Eclipse until 2012. There are many names for February’s Moon: Sleet Moon, Goose Moon, Coyote Moon. I even found a reference from the Sioux, Raccoon Moon. I thought of our resident raccoon. I bundled wool over exposed skin, stood outside in no [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Dreams, Personal, Photography, Practice, Reading, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, book talk, Do You Let Yourself Read?, Natalie Goldberg, Sinclair Lewis, the practice of reading, the structure of writing, the value of staring into space on February 23, 2008 | 104 Comments »
Do You Let Yourself Read?, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I had a voicemail from one of my writing friends yesterday. She said she was frustrated because she wasn’t giving herself time to read. Last year, she had structured it in: made a reading list, read the Classics over [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Home, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Seasons, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged American poets, listening to Robert Frost, places writers call home, Robert Frost, Robert Frost statue at Dartmouth, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, writers in their own voices on February 21, 2008 | 28 Comments »
Shadows Of The Cattail, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Robert Frost was an American poet who lived from March 26, 1874, to January 29, 1963. He was born in San Francisco, made his way to Massachusetts via Harvard, and finally settled in New Hampshire.
My 3rd grade English teacher, Mrs. [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Reading, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged bookstores, Common Good Books, giving back, how to write memoir, mentors, Minnesota, Natalie Goldberg, new book releases, Old Friend from Far Away, support Independent bookstores, writing community, writing practice on February 18, 2008 | 36 Comments »
Old Friend From Far Away, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I bought Natalie Goldberg’s new book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. Actually, Liz bought it for me, the creative version of romance - a writer’s gift. We visited Common [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Nature, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Things That Fly, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged feathers, Great Greys, osprey, raptors, writing about feathers on February 16, 2008 | 8 Comments »
The last feather I saw was a curved downy fluff next to Mr. StripeyPants on the bed. The two comforters are filled with the down of the goose. One is cinnamon, new and soft and fresh. The other, faded pink, old and wearing thin. We have patched the mauve one several times. But alas, there [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, tagged cattails, the practice of haiku, winter in Minnesota on February 13, 2008 | 11 Comments »
Cattail Sun, -25 wind chilled February day, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
ears red from the wind
snow flies off frozen boot tips
cattail fluffs her hair
-posted on red Ravine, Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Bones, Culture, Nature, Photography, Practice, Things That Fly, Wake Up, Writing, Writing Topics, tagged feathers as symbols, feathers throughout history, light as a feather, Shield of Courage, writing about feathers on February 11, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Let’s talk feathers. Light as a feather, feather in your cap, feathered pillows, feathered hair. I’ve been collecting bird feathers since 1984. I find them on long walks through the woods; I find them in the sidewalk cracks along city roads.
Feathers have been used in every culture since the beginning of time. In South American [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Skies, Wake Up, tagged moonrise, the practice of haiku, winter in Minnesota on February 10, 2008 | 13 Comments »
Quarter Oak Sky, -25 wind chilled February day, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
quarter oak moonrise
behind a sliver of sky
holds bonechilling peace
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, February 10th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
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Posted in Body, Bones, Haiku, Nature, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Secrets, tagged midwinter blues, Northwestern Casket Arts Building, the practice of haiku, where safety hides on February 9, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Safety Hides, Northwestern Casket Arts Building wall sign, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
tree swing rocks the snow
blizzard swirls on the blue deck
no safe place to hide
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, February 9th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
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Posted in Bones, Everyday Art, Photography, Practice, Structure, Writers, Writing, Writing Topics, tagged Natalie Goldberg, writing on No Topic, writing prompts on February 5, 2008 | 17 Comments »
Yellow blur, detail of glass globe on a lamp, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I’d been writing with a group of women locally for about a year when I told them, “Some day soon, let’s write on ‘No Topic’ as our topic.”
I explained that No Topic was like the mother of all topics. [...]
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Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Family, Labyrinths, Maps, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Spirituality, Structure, Wake Up, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, mandalas, mandalas for kids, Ouroboros, Sacred Circles, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on January 26, 2008 | 47 Comments »
Coloring Mandalas, A Few Snapshots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2008, all photos © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Relaxing Saturday winter night. Liz and I are coloring mandalas and watching a documentary on Beat Generation poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Liz bought a book on Coloring Mandalas by Susanne F. Fincher. It contains 48 sacred circle [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Authors, Bones, Books, Culture, Dreams, Gratitude, Growing Older, I Don't Remember, Life, Personal, Politics, Practice, Silence, Topic Writing, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged Enrique Rivera, fighting the good fight, finding your voice, Human Rights, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, memories, Shirley Chisholm, stepping out of silence, Temple Grandin, the 1960's, Walking with the Wind on January 25, 2008 | 12 Comments »
I don’t remember Martin Luther King in 1962 or ‘63 when I was 8 or 9 or 10. I don’t remember him when I lived in the South. I must have been sheltered from all the strife and unrest that was going on during those years. I would not have understood.
I do remember him in [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Life, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged Bat medicine, feeling frozen in my tracks, January Full Moon, January in Minnesota, realizing your dreams, totem animals, winter, Wolf Moon on January 23, 2008 | 23 Comments »
The January Wolf Moon was wide and full, smeared across the morning sky the way an artist rubs a chalky finger across gray charcoal on paper. It was Liz that pointed it out to me, half asleep in the kitchen making coffee. By the time I got to the window, she was already out the [...]
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Posted in Bones, Haiku, Nature, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Silence, Skies, Wake Up, tagged Full Wolf Moon, haiku (one-a-day), January Full Moon, winter blues, winter haiku trilogy on January 22, 2008 | 54 Comments »
no room for the moon
when the crunch beneath a boot
sweeps the heart away
snow shovel cracks hard
sky blows 16mph
flashes of white sun
watchful brittle leaves
stone firepit silent, depressed
ten shadows of snow
-photographs, winter moon trilogy, part of the Lightpainting Series, January 2008, all photos © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
-related [...]
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