I am the author of a poetry chapbook, I Will Meet You at the River, (as Suzannah Gilman), frequent traveler, and a licensed attorney who represented victims of domestic violence under a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Justice Office on Violence Against Women. My poetry, essays, fiction, and nonfiction have in such in such publications as The Florida Review, Pearl Magazine, Calyx Journal, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Pearl Magazine, Prick of the Spindle, Slow Trains, The Cafe Review, and The Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. I competed in flash fiction slams, winning every time. I won Literary Death Match on my 50th birthday. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize for poetry, I now concentrate on blogging for The Gloria Sirens and writing fiction. I have four children, four daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren. I live with my husband, the poet Billy Collins, in Florida.
So lucky to have our grown children with us today, finishing up the Thanksgiving prep, graciously sharing hosting duties, and almost making it through the day before succumbing to well-earned naps. Now we are packing up leftovers for their coolers and preparing to send them on their way. They have other responsibilities: pets to care for, jobs to do tomorrow, friends to check in on. But they come home to the lake when they can, and we are grateful for it.
-Wendy White Goddard, 2018
Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
― Mary Oliver
If you die and nobody brings food, it’s a sign that you weren’t very nice.
– Julia Reed
Happiness is a virtue.
– Sue Taylor Lilley
My photojournal entries for the last nine days show how even when I resist the urge to amass a caterpillar condominium of mesh enclosures filled with monarchs and milkweed, I still get […]
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
—Margaret Atwood
Why did it take me till July 30 to write the Crime of the Month? It’s not hard to find crime. Look to your left. Look to your right. Look at Portland. […]
Sometimes time is like watching whales
breach fearless with instinct and practice,
as you and I learned to be
day by day, moment inside moment―
moving toward each other like memory
passed one body to another.
―Ilyse Kusnetz
(from the poem, “Sometimes Time”)
Think before you speak. Read before you think.
― Fran Lebowitz
She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power
―Adrienne Rich
(from the poem, “Power”)
The Gloria Sirens 