A Variation on Prayer
Leaving the gray, bleak evening behind, we enter the massive gothic splendor of stone, stained glass, gilded walls and fluted columns.
Writer’s Choice
Song of Ocean
every day at edge of the wood
i turn and take that same trail
down past the large pines
through thicket and sedge
where very little light gets through
It wasn’t supposed to be this way
Who are these black figures, hovering around my bed like the dementors on the Hogwart’s Express? Am I dying? But there’s no bright light. Every breath is a struggle.
George’s Gold Nugget
Tommy sniffs me at the door, the scruffy dog more polite than enthusiastic. One of his jobs is door monitor. He races back to the man lying in bed in an adjacent room.
Paying Homage
The morning dew soaked through the pants on Hans’ suit. He was on his knees, both hands clasped in front of him, as if paying homage to a shrine.
There is Always a Price to Pay for Survival: A Review of Ellen Keith’s The Dutch Orphan
The Dutch Orphan is a novel by Ellen Keith about Jewish children who are threatened by deportation from The Netherlands and who are separated from their parents and placed in temporary and precarious housing within Dutch orphanages.
Mixing Bowls
Out of breath after climbing three flights of stairs to her new apartment, she muscled her way in the door and set down her heavy shopping bags. The apartment was completely empty aside from a few stacks of boxes against the living room wall.
Experiencing History Through Andalusian Song-Forms in Sequiriyas by Ben Meyerson
As readers, we don’t see the actual musical forms laid out on the page, but we experience their abiding presences through Meyerson’s poetry.
Book Review: Bliss Adair and the First Rule of Knitting
At the start of the year, I found myself traveling to Portugal for a funeral instead of a children’s writing conference in NYC. I needed a book that wasn’t too heavy, both literally and figuratively, as I would only have a carry-on, and I was already emotional.