for original writing of self and others
Post Pinnacle by Linda Jones Hawkins © January 2008 I now have love Tucked sweetly on my pillowslip It enfolds me It comforts me It sustains me And it delights me, I arise knowing my journey Has been stretched a bit more To accommodate his girth and gentle Kind of loving. I now move through…
Linda Jones Hawkins is no stranger to Riehlife as a contributor. See yesterday’s “A Special Valentine Note of Love” dedicated to her mother and sister, Karen and Dorothy. Later in the week you’ll see a Love Bird profile of Linda and her husband Charles. –JGR ________________________________________ 20 SECOND LOVING by Linda Jones Hawkins Not just…
In honor of the combination of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day week, I’m running a “Black Valentine” series to profile vibrant Black couples and individuals I’ve met in St. Louis. I met Linda and her husband Charles at a Kwanzaa celebration where she was showing her art. Since then, we’ve met several times in…
Marvin Bell has written a fine poem on an impossible subject. In its sweep, yet anchored in strong, precise images that anchor the ideas that America was founded on…in its inclusion of family, of people who work with both hands and heads…for me, it’s a true poem—perhaps even a great poem—of the beat of what…
Blog Action Day is today, with a focus on Poverty. Currently 9,394 Sites with an audience with more than 10,612,112 readers are registered in Blog Action Day 2008. Last year, I participated when bloggers focused on the Environment. Read my post on how it’s “Easy to be green at the Carelton Hotel in San Francisco.”…
Elwood P. Dowd: Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, “In this world, Elwood, you must be” – she always called me Elwood – “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me….
I’ve started a new writing project—working with my longtime friend and writing colleague, Stephanie Farrow who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the last weeks we’ve developed a way of working which I’m analyzing into steps below in hopes it might help those writers among Riehlife’s readers. [Note: This is filed in the Write, Pen!…
Click here to read about my Nashville trip last week. Click here to read Yvonne Perry’s report “Janet Riehl’s Nashville Visit” on Yvonne Perry’s Writers in the Sky blogspot. The Riehl Family on the Homeplace…everyone played music or wrote poetry as a matter of course. Anna Riehl, my grandmother, in foreground, wrote the poetry collection…
William T. Dawson’s poem “Moonlighting” is a poem of an event from the 1980s (when some of us remember the recession). Dawson’s poem speaks to our times as hard times cycle back around. I asked William to tell us a bit about the context surrounding writing his poem. This is what he said: I write…
When you receive a “Listenback” from a critique on your work, what can you do next? Use the feedback you’ve received to set up exercises to try things out. Use this releasing question: What other poems are inside this poem? Editing and re-writing are like sculpting.