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Watermelon

I cut into the watermelon, and I want to go back so bad. Back to the days when summer was hot but not brutal, when happiness drove me. When I swagged into the kitchen at my grandmother’s house, thumped a watermelon onto the Formica counter, and cracked a sharp knife through the rind. It was the summer after my second year of law school,...

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I’m Back!!!

My goodness, y’all. We talked every day during Lent then…..silence. My contemplative writing, the subject of those 40 posts, has fallen off the same way. Sometimes a marathon depletes you. Then you regain your strength, and I’m back! Here’s some news: The Big Moose Prize hosted by Black Lawrence Press named When We Were...

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New Orleans Magic

Today, Sunday of the first weekend in Jazz Fest when New Orleans magic pulses through the air like a fine purple spray, I saw an eighty-year-old man with hair the same color as his mauve shoes join a band playing in the Bywater in a furniture shop (a handcrafting furniture type of shop, not a gallery floor) to sing his one hit from 1958 and there...

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That Humming is You

No one is getting out of this alive. The flow will continue after you, it never stops. Don’t dam it. Jump into the stream. Don’t struggle. Roll. Submerge. Stopper your ears and listen. That humming is you, your life energy. What you bring into the world. Once you are gone, that particular humming will stop. Love it. Marvel in it....

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Spring Cleaning, Writer’s Style

In a type of spring cleaning, writer’s style, I’ve freshened up a couple of pages on the website. My Home page is more direct and shorter (you’re welcome.) Same goes for the About Me page, which is also more personal. Previously the page was all about my writing career, leading me to ask, What, you have no you other than writing?...

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Contemplative Writing Prompts for Lent: Goodbye

Today, with our contemplative writing prompts for Lent, we say goodbye. Goodbye to the old way of looking at the world. So long to believing in violent retribution. And, most immediately, goodbye to each other. Well, I’ll still be here, but no more contemplative writing prompts for Lent. Because we won’t be with each other tomorrow...

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Contemplative Writing Prompts for Lent: 39

When it goes dark, how do you hold onto hope? Today, with our Contemplative Writing Prompts for Lent: 39, we’re on Good Friday. On this day, Jesus lay in the tomb with everyone believing him dead. When we don’t know a favorable outcome is in the offing, how do we hope. Write into your source of hope? When the pain in your abdomen...

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Contemplative Writing Prompts for Lent: 38

Today is Maundy Thursday (don’t ask me what that word means.) The traditional ritual associated with today is foot washing, because Jesus did that at the last supper which happened on a Thursday, apparently. Some churches–not many of my Episcopal tradition–recreate this experience on this Thursday of Holy Week. A church I belonged...

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