There is no poetry where there are no mistakes.
– Joy Harjo
What She Said, April 28: Joy Harjo
Katie Riegel
Poet, writer, editor, teacher, blogger, mentor, meditator.
What She Said, April 27: Beryl Markham
…if I were, even now, without either a dog or a horse in my keeping, I should feel I had lost contact with the earth.
– Beryl Markham
What She Said, April 26: Maxine Hong Kingston
In a time of destruction, create something.
– Maxine Hong Kingston
Ice Storm Quarantine
Nearly every spring when I was a kid in the 1970s, growing up on a horse farm in rural central Illinois, we had ice storms. Often they came in the late afternoon, […]
Spaying and Neutering: It’s a Dog’s Life
“But it is an emergency,” I want to say, or rather wail, as the woman on the other end of the phone says goodbye. No, this isn’t about COVID-19 or any other […]
The Weight Dilemma
The first time my mother disparaged my weight, I was thirteen. I wore a size 7. My best friend and I were shopping, finding outfits for the fashion show our dramatic choir […]
Dear Sister: A Gratitude Letter
Dear Sister, A friend is doing a gratitude diary and it’s been helping her a lot, so I thought I’d try as well. I believe in the practice of gratitude, have seen […]
A Must Read Essay
The author of the essay “Whatever Happened to ________?” published anonymously, because she had to. Stalked by an ex-husband who freaked out due to her greater success as a writer, she has […]
Poetry Chain Letter
I’ve recently been the recipient of a handful of chain email plans, all with one idea: share quotes from poems that have been meaningful, inspiring, or comforting to you. The details of […]
Why I Bought a Golden Retriever Puppy—Even Though I Believe in Rescue
In the 1990s, I had two Golden Retrievers that I took over from my mother. She’d found that they needed too much exercise and she didn’t have the energy for them, and […]
The Gloria Sirens 