September brings a new beginning, the start of a new year, my own birthday near to the high holidays, days when the gates swing open, and the book of life is ready to be written in, again. It is also 4th Street Fair of the Arts & Crafts in my hometown of Bloomington and the Spoken Word Stage and Poetry on Demand. Tony sets up manual typewriters and perfectly squared 5 x 8 pieces of paper and away we go. People come up and order a poem, they might share a word, a favorite anim

Last week I spent a perfect summer day with a small group of writer friends gathered for a retreat on my back porch.There was just a bit of a breeze and everything green as green.  Immersed in words, and the precious sense of unmarked time we were all renewed. We shared writing prompts “Toast” for example, and read the fast writes out. We took stretches of alone writing time for our own ongoing projects.  In between a pot luck lunch; potatoes and dill fresh from Mary Ann’s ga

It’s poetry month and I am writing a poem a day with a small group of friends. We are posting up to a private shared page where we get to read each other’s poems and shout out lines. So far I have written eight poems, I may even go back to a few of them, but for now the important thing is not just that I am writing but that I have a community to share the joy I find in playing with language, a group of voices that cheer each other on. Community and poetry are two words we oft

At sundown this evening Rosh Hashanah begins. Over the last five years I’ve given time in the preceding weeks to puzzling out how I want to celebrate the high holy days this time around. For over twenty years before this a group of friends always spent the holidays together, in one another’s homes sharing traditions and creating new ones. I was trying to decide what to carry forward in to this year and what to set aside. How do I want to spend Rosh Hashanah, and at the close

A long time ago, before the age of the internet, I belonged to a group of writers that met weekly for over ten years. We met in the living rooms of each of our homes sharing the circulating responsibility of providing food and facilitation for the evening. We critiqued, we wrote, we talked, we gave performances and workshops. We made a documentary and received grants. And while it’s been more years apart than those we were together I carry the gift of this circle with me each