Poet David Whyte on personal power and writing: “Every action taken, from the moment we switch off the alarm clock in the morning to the way we write a line of poetry or design a product, has the potential to change the world, leave it cold with indifference, or perhaps more commonly, nudge it infinitesimally in the direction of good …
The following is an excerpt from the poem To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donoghue. It resonates today: especially its urging to pause and reflect in the quarantine winter. This is the time to be slow,Lie low to the wallUntil the bitter weather passes. Try, as best you can, not to letThe wire brush of doubtScrape from your …
“It’s not so terrible a feeling, aloneness, or it’s so terrible it’s mind-blowing. I’ve never felt so present as I do now, every second on the brink of life and death. No sense of space or scale. I picture myself as a tiny person teetering on the rim of a glass of milk. (I don’t know why milk, I don’t …
I recently hate-watched the HBO limited series “The Undoing,” with Nicole Kidman in an assortment of glorious coats and execrable wigs, and with Hugh Grant as her husband. This travesty was written by David E. Kelley, who wrote “The Practice,” which I quite liked, and “Big Little Lies,” same. There were a lot of things wrong with the series. It …
Gwendolyn Brooks died on this day in 2000, 20 years ago. She is one of the most admired, influential, and widely-read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She had the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position—and Poet Laureate …
I’m working on a play about a woman who is challenged by moral scrupulosity OCD, a condition that affects sufferers in a variety of ways. My questions are, how does such a person react when faced with a moral dilemma at work? If the antagonist learns the hero suffers from scrupulosity, how can the antagonist overcome her objections to a …
This mopey winter poem, complete with collywobbles, was one of my favorites as a kid. This is just a portion of the perfect poem in which to wallow when depressed. You can read the full poem here (scroll down). Aroint thee, sweetness and light! I want to be dark and sour! Away with the bird that twitters! All that glitters …
Noted Pulitzer and Tony Award winning playwright Edward Albee knew well the issue of having aspirations loftier than one’s talent. He said, “Read the great stuff, but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging. If you read only Beckett and Chekhov, you’ll go away and only deliver telegrams for Western Union.”― Edward Albee
The “Writing Down The Bones” author Natalie Goldberg likes to keep things simple. She writes: “A writing practice is simply picking up a pen — a fast-writing pen, preferably, since the mind is faster than the hand — and doing timed writing exercises. The idea is to keep your hand moving for, say, ten minutes, and don’t cross anything out, …
I’m writing a play that deals with the themes of mercy and forgiveness. I’ve been researching ideas and quotations about forgiveness, and this one from Rita Mae Brown is particularly pertinent. “One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.”― Rita Mae Brown