I wrote this opinion piece soon after the Golden Globes and sent it to the Albany Times Union, but since they haven’t published it, I decided to share it here. Reading it now, nearly a month later, I stand by what I said then. Awards shows are one of my guilty pleasures, and the Golden… [Read More]
Can my Blue Sky Day Designer get me organized in 2018?
I tossed off this poem yesterday afternoon so I’d have something new to read at the Caffe Lena open mic last night. The historic coffeehouse has been beautifully expanded and renovated, and it has a spiffy new lobby and an elevator that makes it handicap-accessible for the first time. Kudos to Carol Graser, who’s kept… [Read More]
Twelves ways of looking at Christmas Consumption
In my last post, I described using Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” as a stylistic model for creating an original poem. In my Alchemy of Creative Writing workshop series at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, I challenged the participants to write a poem in this format using the holidays as… [Read More]
Eleven Ways of Looking at November
November can be the cruelest month, especially when the end of Daylight Savings Time plunges us suddenly into premature darkness. From then on, it’s a slippery downhill slope for many of us, straight through the holidays and into the New Year when we begin noticing the precious minutes of daylight that beat back the darkness… [Read More]
Sign up for my creative block-busting workshops and win a prize!
I’ll be facilitating two workshops at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy this November. There’s still time to register, and if you do, or if you get a friend to register, I’ve got a special prize for you. Read on to learn what you’ll win. But first, here are the workshop descriptions…. [Read More]
Patricia Stoltey’s long journey to publication
I’m delighted to welcome Patricia Stoltey as today’s guest blogger. Pat and I first met in 2009 on Dani Greer’s Blog-a-Day web site, and we reconnected recently on Facebook. Her story is a great illustration of my favorite maxim from the I Ching: Perseverance furthers. Four Things I’ve Learned About Writing Along the Way by… [Read More]