Squeezed

“Like a snake is squeezing you, maybe?” I offered. My students are working on a project which requires them to create a symbol for a problem they have overcome. “Lots of people, when they get anxious, have tightness around here,” I gestured around my chest. “I definitely feel it there.” “Yeah, like I’m being squeezed,” […]

Sun

I saw Lincoln’s poor threadbare hat in the American History Museum, but my heart wasn’t open until I saw a Degas, a very rough Degas in reds and browns and blacks with awful lines and a turn in it that grabbed me. Somehow looking at paintings teaches me about form in writing, moving my eyes around […]

The Sweater

For a few hours, I had this great friend. I had both spent a long weekend at a writing retreat in the February-infected deep dark woods of Pennsylvania. It was lovely there, in a dim sort of way. The buildings of this Quaker retreat center were gorgeously simple rectangles, old white. There was a window […]

Prodigal

“Melting is a common end-of-life scenario for many snowmen.” We used to go to the occult section at the bookstore and look at the decks. My standard for a “good” deck was that it was pretty. They keep tarot cards locked up in cases in bookstores. I guess people will steal them. Or steal cards, […]