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While I was growing up and imagining my future life as a writer, I had the image, like many people, of the lone writer in her garret. I imagined myself up in a large room at the top of a house, papers everywhere. The room would be cold, so I would have to wrap myselfContinue reading “Community”

The other day, I picked up the second volume of Marcel Proust’s, In search of lost time. It is probably my third attempt to read Within a Budding Grove. My previous forays were failures because I didn’t have the time, or couldn’t feel connected to the volume somehow, or, or…. well, something always seemed toContinue reading “Patience”

I’ve been thinking about architecture lately.  Maybe it’s because I read my poem, “Ex-house” recently at the launch of The Banister (Niagara Poetry Anthology). It’s a poem that uses architectural metaphors to explore the breakdown of a relationship.  For instance, the poem’s first line begins with “I am exploring architecture”. This line sets the toneContinue reading “Architecture”

Summer is a good time to think about love. Who doesn’t love sunshine, long days, and warm nights spent strolling through city streets, or sitting out on a balcony or deck, just enjoying the weather? And summer is the perfect time to discover a new romance, even if that romance is with a really goodContinue reading “Writers and lovers”

I decided that after an unexpected two-month hiatus from blogging (yes, life!), it’d be worth spending some time meditating on what it means to find balance. How do we, as writers, find time to write when juggling full-time jobs, parenting and family obligations, volunteer work in our communities, and a plethora of other demands onContinue reading “June, on balance”

The birds are at it again. March has barely begun, and the birds (I think they are European starlings) seem to have returned early. And they’ve decided for the third or fourth year in a row that they are going to build a nest in my barbecue. I’ve looked up this phenomenon online. I amContinue reading “Birds, barbecues, and beginning again…”

I was asked recently to speak about poetry to a class of students in an elementary school. As a “real”, living and breathing poet, the teacher asked if I could talk to the students about what poetry is like “out there” in the “real world”, and, more especially, to explain why people write poetry. TheContinue reading “February asks: why write poetry?”

I’m excited to say that 2018 has begun with the publication of three of my poems! (You’ll find them listed on the publications page.) Thanks to Anne Burke of The Prairie Journal,  http://www.prairiejournal.org/  and Bunny Iskov of Verse Afire,  http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/. ) This looks to be a promising year as I complete the editing of Written Tenfold, an anthology of verse by poetsContinue reading “And so begins 2018…”