I’m percolating, not procrastinating. Yes, I have a paper due, and no, I’m not writing it. Instead, I’m watching TV, going for a walk, washing dishes, cleaning my ears. Anything except writing. I used to call it procrastination and feel bad about myself, but now I know this behavior for what it is: percolation—an essential…
My Corner of the World The bottom of the ocean is a field Green, then yellow. Gold, then brown. Once this ocean was brown with bison Prairie grass bends with the wind So dry it’s hard to imagine it was once ocean So much space a person can feel small Or exactly person-sized Strangely grounded,…
I’ve been a holdout for years with the March Slice Challenge. I look forward to it every year as a reader, and I slice sporadically throughout the year, but I’ve never been so much as tempted to sign up for daily slicing before. Mostly out of concern for my readers. I didn’t think I could…
Bad news I knew He didn’t Dr’s recommendation Two words No contact Concussion risk It means No football He’s done He hears Dream destroyed He hears Life over To me Thin dream Thinking small To him The world His future Fame, fortune Making it Being somebody Now quiet So quiet Too quiet No words For…
Fishing for slices, baiting the hook To slice is to notice, wonder Are my eyes and ears open? Stuck. No thoughts. No words. Nothing. Check my email. More comments yet? Just one more cup of coffee Repeat lines, borrow structures and formats Should I write about folding laundry? Someone should write about folding laundry. No…
Unschooling means we’re becoming tourists in our own region, and what a place it is to be a tourist. There are a handful of world-class attractions in Western South Dakota— the Badlands, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore. And there are dozens of true gems—the Mammoth Site, the Wild Horse Sanctuary, The Black Hills Institute, Wind…
We checked out magazines from the library. For me, Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful. For him, Car & Driver, Sports Illustrated. This is what he chose to read first: “We have to do this, Mom,” he said. A Martha Stewart crafts project? I anticipate pages of instructions in tiny print I won’t be able to…
Here, I write. In the dining room, the heart of the house. The walls are the richest chocolate brown, but I’m thinking of repainting this summer. Maybe red. I love a red room. My office, the space I created for writing, is red. It’s upstairs on the very edge of the house. You get there…
In a recent post for the Nerdy Book Club blog, Donalyn Miller wrote about revisiting our reading histories to identify the books that have been touchstones in our lives: More than listing favorites, creating a reading autobiography encourages readers to revisit their reading experiences and identify books signifying turning points or touchstones in their reading…
What I like best is when there is a certain hardness to my writing. When it’s stripped. Bare. Long on the nouns and verb. Short on the adjectives and adverbs. In my mind, it’s rock or bone. Flinty and inevitable. The voice is the hardest to find. So slippery. Always hiding from me. I think…
