It's December and the leaves lie cold on the ground ringed by dark shadows of moisture left unevaporated by the sun hanging silver and low in the sky. Frost stiffens the individual blades of grass so that they glint as I walk by. These are the first beautiful words to…
Merciful Distance: A Craft Annotation
My monthly submissions to Lesley University's MFA program each include two craft annotations. When we "freshmen" were first presented with this requirement at our initial residency in June, the idea of writing a craft annotation about any book was enough to frighten many of us, but I was intrigued. After…
Castle Rock
I reached for the edge of a hole in the face of the rock, a hollow worn into the sandstone over decades of rain and wind. It was the perfect hold, a bulky edge I could wrap my shaking fingers around. After several vertical meters of forcing my sore fingertips…
Better Intentions
Budget Rental Vans squat curbside on the street. College boys with sinewy arms and authoritative expressions hoist their hastily labeled boxes up and into efficient stacks. They are leaving. They are through with this college town. New places and new challenges await them elsewhere. I know not the distance any…
Stumbling is good.
The paper plate is translucent with grease. I can make out the faux wood grain of the plastic surface beneath. My book lies face flat and wedged open on the table beside me. I cannot read now. Red sauce coats and drips from my fingers as I manipulate the molten…
Talent borrows; genius steals.
Choosing not to write tonight would be too easy. I could snap my laptop shut, flip my alarm clock on, swallow a pill, and turn out the lights. I could listen to the cars humming on Massachusetts Avenue nearby (or "Mass Ave" as the locals call it) and wonder about…
Open your mouth, let the words fly out.
In Annie Dillard's The Writing Life (my Bible while I'm here) she writes that poet Saint-Pol Roux used to hang a sign on his bedroom doorknob at night while he slept that read: The poet is working. I now think that's possible! Simply being here is jump starting my creativity.…
Land of a Thousand Libraries
How odd to watch night pull toward me from across the sea. My plane touched down at Logan and I shook my head, refusing to accept the glitch. We taxied, and the shadows pushed out long and westward. No , I thought, the ocean is supposed to swallow the setting sun,…