A stanza from a Jane Hirshfield poem: A moment knows itself penultimate--- usable, spendable,good yet, but only for reckoning up. Passover, with its nonseder/seder for me, the Zoom version for so many others, has come and gone. We should live and be well, Jews like to say. And by any … [Read more...] about We should live and be well: my corona diaries
Letting Go
The other day I became obsessed with finding two books I could not easily locate. It was a reference to one of them—The Family of Man—in Sally Mann’s wonderful memoir that set me on my mission. The other book, To Be Nobody Else, bears a connection in my mind to The … [Read more...] about Letting Go
Stories begging to be told
Tell anyone you’re a writer and inevitably you hear these words—Oh do I have a story to tell! If only I knew how to get it all down. Maybe I could tell it to you and you could write it for me. “Writing isn’t particularly different from hibernation,” observes the polar bear/narrator in Yoko … [Read more...] about Stories begging to be told
Torch Songs
A few weeks ago I had dream in which I was onstage, getting ready to sing. Maybe a little nervous, maybe not, I launched into a song. I surprised myself at how good I sounded. This is not my ego speaking. It’s my unconscious playing with me. Yes, I love to sing (who doesn’t?). But being able to … [Read more...] about Torch Songs
The long and the short of it
Don’t have to be a writer to know we belong to a storytelling species. Conversation is just a prelude, the entry point to an anecdote begging to be shared. I’m not prone to especially long-winded anecdotes, but even I can get carried away. “The long and the short of it,” I’ll say, reaching the … [Read more...] about The long and the short of it
The minor fall/the major lift
Ask a writer why she writes and she’s bound to say it has something to do with her love of the places reading has always taken her. Stories are what we live by. Great writers tell them in ways that move us with profound insights—not to mention unforgettable characters. Then there’s the music of … [Read more...] about The minor fall/the major lift
