Like the Sufi mystic poets of old who did not see themselves as separate from God and who met in secret to protect themselves from fanatical fundamentalists who thought otherwise, a group of women friends gathered around a table for tea and something more…talk of the Dharma, the Tao, the Wise Woman Way. “Bring something […]
A day spent in Floyd – the one stoplight rural town I live in – can be as exciting as time spent in any big city, as far as I’m concerned. On Friday I had lunch at Oddfellas Cantina with two amazingly accomplished women, sold 10 books (The Jim and Dan Stories), and got […]
In the beginning I misunderstood… But now I’ve got it, the word is good. ~ The Word by Lennon/McCartney An hour before it was time to head out for Spoken Word Open Mic at the Café Del Sol in downtown Floyd, my husband reminded me that I was supposed to box up 20 of my […]
The class of 1998 at Women’s Wellness Week, Indian Valley, Virginia, a woman’s retreat hosted by my friend Ise Williams who has since passed away. Do you recognize me with mud on my face? To view a more recent class picture go here. My son Josh’s class picture is here. Can you find him in all […]
Girls in brightly colored wigs posing for poets in a clash of culture when live-bands performed at the Winter Sun Hall and the poets read free verse in Café Del Sol on the same night in different parts of the same building. ~ February ‘06 Post notes: On Wednesday, tomorrow, at two minutes and three […]
A support group? A union? A class or convention? There was talk of track backs, permalinks, and spam. Mostly, we enjoyed meeting each other, some for the first time. We were old bloggers, new bloggers, wanna-be bloggers, and blog readers. The lap tops were lit up and the stats were compared. I learned that bloggers […]
On this day, Joe and I walked a stone path lined with emerald green moss against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Appalachian Mountain Range, one of the oldest in the world, is a gently rolling scene of overlapping mountains for as far as the eye can see. It looks prehistoric, and I […]
All my friends would like to know…how I can sleep so late…well, I have a gene for it…the wine of words is mostly partaken…in the wee hours of the morning…I write alone. ~ Colleen, From The Zen of Winter Poetry, Muses Like Moonlight. The open mic that began as a community outreach effort by the […]
AKA: The Bride and Big Foot ~ I drove into town on Tuesday to hang flyers for Saturday’s Spoken Word Night and to pass out brochures for my cousin Tammy, who is promoting an ICAN Birth Expo in Roanoke this coming April. My first stop was the Harvest Moon Health Food store, a grand central […]
The Appalachian Mountains…ran like shivers up my spine…they rose in my dreams… Was I always destined for Virginia? How did I go from a small coastal town in the South Shore of Boston to living a rural life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia? Was the fact that I grew up infatuated with […]
Dance: Poetry of the foot. ~ John Dyden ~ Since the days of The Surf Ballroom in my amusement park hometown of Hull, Massachusetts, dance has been my body’s native language. I love it the way my husband loves to play soccer, and I treat it like a favorite sport. Resting during the day before […]
On Friday, my whole day revolved around fish. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was raised Catholic and it was considered a sin to eat meat on Fridays back then, and so my family usually ate fish. It had everything to do with a local Floyd business that consists of two […]
