In Faith and Gardens and Appalachia
I know I proclaimed it. I know I prayed it – that I did not want to fall in love anymore. My heart just had no more room. From my living room window, I watch each day’s sun set. This is no artist’s view – houses and trees in the way. Still I am romanced. […]
I lived at home in college, and I depended on a very old 3-in-1 printer I had purchased myself at Radio Shack to spit out my carefully crafted essays. Because I commuted to campus, I didn’t like to plan for extra time to make it to an empty lab, scramble to get my thumb drive […]
Helen by Amanda WenischI read your life like a poem to solve,analyzing the images before me. There I am in the tiny bathroom off your kitchen, memorizingthe make-up bottle of ivory. There I am, finding you in blue birds.You – fair and freckled-red.You – bruised and blackberry-stained. There you are at the table, eatingfried fish. […]
Yardwork Do not rush to mow the lawn, dear– The bees are on the clover blooms; A Cabbage White drinks from a dandelion. Are they not angels too? Is their feeding not holy? And all we have to do is do nothing– The Kingdom is at hand! Placed in motion at the onset of creation– […]
When I last published something here on Ash Wednesday, I had plans for other Lenten writings. At the very least, something for Holy Week. Every draft fell short. They were reactionary things; I was angrily, at best, and haughtily, at worst, responding to things I was reading or hearing or seeing in my life. Nothing […]
Shaking out the cobwebs with an Ash Wednesday meditation. In my driveway, earlier today, when I left my car after a grocery trip, I heard an uproarious squawking. I looked up and spotted the hawk that’s been frequenting our neighborhood perched high in my neighbor’s oak tree. A few limbs over, a smaller bird — […]
I put my hands to work, peeling carrots. With each strip, my wrist synchs with my breath – Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I’m not thinking about it. One foot in front of the other by the lake, I watch the geese. I am angry and grief-stricken and […]
I am over-the-moon excited to share that my poem “You Shall Feed Her” is in the 2020 issue of From the Depths by Haunted Water Press. Digital copies are available for free and print issues are available for purchase by clicking here. The entire issue is so lovely and features so much great work. My […]
Maybe your Thanksgiving will be quieter and/or less busy than it has been in other years. So, here’s my challenge, especially if you are feeling low: journal a list of 20 things you are grateful for that are specific to the year 2020. Try to focus on 20 things that have come to you this […]
Gladiolus grow from corms, not bulbs, like I have always assumed. There is a difference as explained by this article on The Spruce, “…true bulbs are divided into layers (think of an onion), including a papery outer layer. Corms are not divided in this way; rather, they are solid units.” I have learned too that rhizomes […]