1. I like to type “okeedoke” instead of “yes” just to piss off my spell checker. 2. I find the little yellow triangle icon with an exclamation point in it annoying. 3. My Exclamation poem: A kiss with punctuation … indicates excitement … long and thoughtful … to the point … ending quickly … with [...]
1. The Blue Fairy (aka my friend Alina) makes wishes come true. It’s a tall order, but she can handle it. She walks on stilts. 2. Most of the teens in this group attended the recent Earthsong Teen Meditation Retreat that my husband organized. Another group of teens I spent some time with were lobbying [...]
Floydfest is our town’s four-day music festival, headed-up by Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson, the original owners of Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd. Held every summer on 80 acres of land off the Blue Ridge Parkway on the Patrick Floyd County, the festival is attended by 10,000 or more and is going strong in its seventh [...]
(other than enjoy the music and dance) 1. Hang out 2. Use an ATM machine 3. Get your face painted 4. Get your fortune read 5. Join a parade 6. Play Bocce Ball if you know how 7. Eat real French Fries and drink a beer from a plastic cup that is compostable. Post Note: [...]
There were some who tried to draft former Virginia Governor Mark Warner for the 2008 Presidential Election. But Warner decided to run for the U.S. Senate, hoping to replace Senator John Warner, who is retiring. It was also rumored that Warner was on a Democratic list as a Vice Presidential possibility before his Senate run [...]
The following appeared in the Floyd Press on July 24, 2008 and also online HERE. The theme of this year’s Floydfest, “A Family Affair,” came about at the end of last year’s festival when festival co-founder Kris Hodges realized that everyone involved – patrons, volunteers, staff, and vendors – felt like family. But [...]
1. The Teen Meditation Retreat that Joe organized and attended last week got a good write-up in the Roanoke Times HERE. It included a large feature photo on the EXTRA front page of Abraham Cherrix (who I interviewed HERE) doing yoga. My own story is coming soon … 2. Meditation: It’s like combing the hair [...]
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo Da Vinci I’ve never been comfortable with extravagant or abstract wealth. Since I was young girl, I’ve had an awareness that land, water, and food are what define whether one is rich or poor. So much of the rest is a social phenomenon of modern day capitalism, consumerism, and [...]
She brought mango salsa and chips. I made my specialty: rye crisp crackers with melted cheese, pesto, and red peppers. Just picked raspberries and blueberries got passed around. It was the first time ten year old Kyla played with us. She’s in the family business, after all, and also writes haiku. Coloring in a coloring [...]
Punctuated poetry with arbitrary line breaks is like prose poured into a little black dress Every period that stops where a line already has is a button waiting to pop Every comma that dangles at the edge of empty space is a thread that could lead to unraveling Every new line capitalized in the middle [...]
Joe and I went to a wedding. I let him do the heavy lifting. Leaving me with most of the kissing. My son has a son. And a beautiful family. Blessings to my daughter-in law Alexis’ sister Darla and her husband Adam. It was a beautiful wedding and fun party. Watch Kaylee’s strobe light dance [...]
1. Press Play 2. Record 3. Pause 4. Fast Forward 5. Rewind I was recently shocked to notice that my last Scrabble blog entry was from way back in March when Chelsea, Virginia, and I won the Literacy Volunteer Scrabble Tournament HERE. I have actually played two games with Mara since then, but we talked [...]
1. My new line as of late is: “I’ll bring the cucumbers!” They grow overnight. 2. Working on three stories at once (like I have been this past week) is like juggling apples, oranges, pears. 3. And I’m not working with a full deck. Seeing as how most everyone else gets 52 cards of energy [...]
1. Summer Snowball 2. Flower Shower 3. A Flurry of Flutter 4. A Butterfly bar serving nectar on tap
~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on July 10 and on their online site HERE. When Rose Cherrix and her son Abraham first participated in the Spoken Word Open Mic at Floyd’s Café Del Sol, they received a rousing round of applause when Rose told the crowd that Abraham recently had cancer [...]
1. Powered by the Sun 2. Baby’s Moon Roof 3. Flights of Fancy 4. Fleeting Youth Post Note: The above photos were taken last Wednesday when my grandson Bryce’s sister Kaylee and I babysat for him while his mother went to a class.
Mara’s introduction for Hollins University writing teacher Thorpe Moeckel at the Café Del Sol was so well crafted and delivered that Thorpe thought maybe he shouldn’t read any poetry, after all. Her words were a hard act to follow. But follow them he did, taking us listeners on a ride through Alaska, Maine, and North [...]
1. On the Fourth of July, I made a red, white, and blue dessert for my house guest: strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream! 2. I actually had two house guests over the weekend, one who wore American flag boxers, and the other wore Red Sox ones. 3. I found myself being thankful that it doesn’t [...]
