Learn from reading, even books you don't like Next time you want to give up reading a particular book because 1. it bores you, 2. you can't make sense out of it, or 3. it makes you bang your head on the wall, keep reading. You can analyze it and learn from it as a writer. Maybe. Or it still might be a huge waste of your time. But isn't learning from it a far nobler idea than tossing it from a … [Read more...]
Derek’s Black Hill Spruce
Nature can help us understand so many things about life. My eldest child took his own life in the fall of 2011 at age thirty two. As a mother, no matter how many counselors, doctors and friends tell you suicide isn’t the parent’s fault, you can’t help but wonder what you did wrong. Didn’t I cuddle him enough? Should I have been stricter. Was I too strict? The bottom line was: I failed as a … [Read more...]
A Writer Visits Père Lachaise
I feel as if I only touched the surface of the beauty of this extraordinary cemetery in Paris. For a writer, Père Lachaise is a magical place of wonder and inspiration at every turn. I'm glad we took a tour, but even the guide told us there isn't enough time to see everything. The most romantic story is the one of Abelard and Heloise. A few highlights … [Read more...]
Visiting Jim Morrison
At last, I was here I stared at his monument in awe, flushed and a little woozy, thinking about how much this long-haired, leather-clad icon has meant to me over the years. The makeshift gate at Père Lachaise Cemetery wouldn't let me get any nearer than 20 or so feet. At last I was here and yet this was the closest I'd ever get to him. It was a bittersweet moment that … [Read more...]
Russell Edson and the Dream Brain
Extraordinary poet I first learned of his strangely bizarre prose poems from poet Stephen Dunn in a workshop at Cranbrook in Michigan. Dunn said that Edson's book, THE TUNNEL: Selected Poems, was all about fucking. The entire book. Every single poem. So, of course, I had to buy the book. I imagine everyone in the workshop ran out to buy the book. I don't necessarily disagree with Dunn, because I … [Read more...]