Writing En Plein Air

Have you longed for the chance to sit outside and write while listening to the birds, smelling the sweetness of the grass and blooming trees, watching the beauty of the dancing trees, and feeling the…

Home by Rob Trousdale

i knew the weekend was going to be trouble too many white folks too many Acura MDXs too many of my fiancee’s friends too many J.Crew swim trunks too many Ralph Lauren dinner jackets too…

Let Emily Dickinson Reassure You

Dear Bella Levenshteyn Let Emily Dickinson reassure you– Much Madness is divinest Sense — To a discerning Eye — Much Sense — the starkest Madness — ‘Tis the Majority In this, as All, prevail —…

Zen Poem by Daniel Berrigan

How I long for supernatural powers! said the novice mournfully to the holy one. I see a dead child and I long to say, Arise! I see a sick man I long to say, Be…

Walt Whitman and Dear Layla

Dear Rebecca, Sarah, Matthew and Patrick, Joanie French and I took the Amtrak train to Texas in the summer of 2005 for a family wedding. Along the way and back, I read the Library of…

Be in Love with Yr Life

“Neighbors, friends, colleagues, students, fellow poets, and artists all came to her home where they were greeted with exuberance, shared in her bursts of full-bodied laughter, and were sent off with her signature Buddhist bow….

Reading and Writing Inter-Are

What you have to do, I believe, is to believe that there is a reader, a listener, a needer, within yourself, who corresponds closely to those readers out there, and you have to satisfy that…

Calming the Breath by Ko Un

Poised like an aging bear climbing a tree, hanging on tightly, I collect my breath. Poised like a bird stretching its neck out and pecking at food I collect my breath. Heaven and earth are…