13: Don’t Forget to Write
1. I’m blogging without a net, meaning I have no spellcheck on my WordPress post page.
2. My poetry books, Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife, Objects are Closer Than They Appear, Poems From the Dark Room and Mining the Gold of the Inner Life, are sold locally at The Book House (pictured here), as well at The Floyd Country Store and the Harvest Moon Food Store (and on Amazon).
3. “Writing doesn’t just help you process your thoughts. Neuroscientists have found it physically changes your brain in ways that build resilience and help you handle everyday stress and challenges… Writing allows you to, at once, name your pain and create distance from it. Brain imaging studies show that putting feelings into words helps regulate emotions. The simple act of naming your emotions can help you shift from reaction to response. Instead of identifying with your feelings and mistaking them for facts, writing can help you simply become aware of what’s arising and prepare for deliberate action.” More HERE.
4. Words on the page get stored away / They lose their currency / and age like bodies / Pens disappear / in a conspiracy of mystery / Fingers slip on keyboards / leaving stranded stanzas / and unplanned changes – Read my poem When the Ink Dries in its entirety HERE.
5. On SNL Weekend Update this week, Colin Jost reported that Trump’s “Board of Peace” consists of countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia and joked, “that’s like if Law & Order: S.V.U. starred Diddy.”
6. “And everyone keeps pretending this is politics instead of what it is: State power learning it can kill in public and survive the news cycle.”- Michael Jochum
7. I’m currently reading Paper Girl, a memoir and journalistic chronicle on how we got here (so divided) by bestselling author who lives in Roanoke Beth Macy. I’ve met Macy, who is currently running for Congress and am shocked as I read to see how much we have in common. I was a paper girl who delivered newspapers (for one summer) in my small little town too. She was a reporter for The Roanoke Times and I covered events for The Floyd Press. She was in the marching band and I marched in the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) drill team. We both come from low-income backgrounds and had fathers with alcoholism. We both joined different Unity Churches with female ministers after having kids, have similar politics, like to play Scrabble and Boggle and more… And by the way, Wikipedia reports that “Former American president Barack Obama placed Paper Girl among the top three of his favorite books of 2025.”
8. SH is a playable Scrabble word.
9. “Neuroscience confirms what the psyche has always known: repression is metabolically expensive. When we suppress emotion, the prefrontal cortex must continually inhibit limbic signals, consuming enormous cognitive energy. Cortisol lingers in circulation, the immune system shifts toward inflammation, and interoceptive pathways, the ones that tell us what we feel, grow dull. Over time, this dullness becomes mistaken for peace. The body seems quiet because its alarms have burned out. What looks like composure is often exhaustion. The cost of silence is hidden, but it is never absent. When a person swallows words to keep a peace that is already broken, or when they choose stillness over speech in a room where something unjust has been said or done, the body pays.” – From “The Price of Silence: What Self-Betrayal Does to the Brain…” Vera Hart, MD, PhD
10. Play on words or play by the book?
11. I close my eyes to see / until the drum is silenced / until life’s puzzle is nearly finished / and I can add my piece to the whole / But don’t look too close / or you’ll miss the full picture / where everyone is a beautiful loner / where we all belong to each other / are the parts of the same single truth… Read Surprise Endings in its entirety HERE.
12. Writing is talking on paper.
13. You add your own words / to the sum of parts / Distinct as fingerprints / A poet’s north star / You write it down / and read it out loud / Your thoughts are the medium / and voice is your art – Read my poem Voice in its entirety HERE.
______Thirteen Thursday
January 27th, 2026 3:35 pm
I knew that they say to journal or to just write to process your feelings, but I didn’t understand how that helped. Whenever I’m writing fiction or school papers, I found that giving myself the space to write what I’m feeling and what I’m dreading as I write the actual helps me get the words out. (Then I copy/paste the words I’m using for my story or whatever into a separate document and keep the story with my feelings as well.)
January 27th, 2026 3:48 pm
I read Paper Girl as soon as it came out. I’ve been a Beth Macy fan since she was a beat reporter for the Roanoke Times. I also know her husband Tom Landon that is a producer at Public TV locally. Hope we can support her to be elected in the 5th and of course replace do nothing Griffith in the 9th. Keep writing Colleen, we enjoy reading your words. Warm Salute, Jason Rutledge
January 27th, 2026 4:09 pm
I love Beth. She and Tom and Joe and I had drinks at the Lush Lounge once after Shasha’s band Palmyra at Dogtown. I also went to two of her book talks in Floyd. She’s on a roll! And she put it all together so well in the new book.
January 29th, 2026 2:35 pm
I went to Hollins with Beth while she was working on her MA and I was working on my BA. We ended up in creative writing classes together. I have known her a long time. I think she would make a great congressional representative.