A little over a decade ago, when I was taking a novel-writing course through the Humber School for Writers, Timothy Findley, my mentor, would send notes on the pages I had written and often say, “You move from A to B without showing how you got there. If you’re going to tell a story well,…
We’ve just spent the last nine hours traveling miles and miles of interstate and classic rock and got back to Durham to find a small package on our doorstep I have been waiting for. Back in September I began putting together a book of poetry and recipes from this blog as a way to say…
Ginger and I (and Ella) got up early this morning and drove to Birmingham to check in on Ginger’s folks and to see Lola and Gracie, our other Schnauzers who are now living with my in-laws because they have been so helpful to Ginger’s dad who has Alzheimer’s. We got here mid-afternoon and have spent…
I don’t do well in small spaces. When life becomes claustrophobic – when my world begins to feel small – I get nervous, agitated. I don’t like feeling that I’ve gone through my day (or days on end) without doing anything more than dealing with my stuff. Between being ill, trying to negotiate the pedantic…
I’m happy to say I’m beginning to feel better. Not yet one hundred percent, but better. Thanks for the kind words and prayers. I had a fun thing happen today. The Duke Chronicle is the independent student daily newspaper at the university and they ran a story on three changes in Duke dining services; I’m…
my head is stuffymy body’s falling asleepI’ll write in my dreams Peace,Milton
Cold/Flu/Whatever This Bug Is — 1Milty — 0 Peace,Milton
Tonight we only had two people come into the restaurant. I’m beyond trying to figure out how all the different things on the schedules of the Duke students affect when they come to dinner, but tonight left me puzzled. Ramon and I got a good bit of prep work done for the week ahead (I’m…
Sen. Barack Obama’s refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism. (AP) Pledge of Allegiance I was eight years old when they took downthe picture of…
It was an odd place to find a poet. She was seated at the end of a long conference table (the kind that hosted meetings that were anything but poetic) in a room, not much bigger than the table, designed for getting to the point rather than ruminating in metaphor. Yet, there we sat, some…