I can read a novel for hours, luxuriating in a well-told story; an interesting piece of nonfiction can intrigue me for equally long periods. But poems . . . Only one poem can speak to me per day, it seems. I’ve discovered that reading a poem a day provides me the perfect pace, time spent […]
On a still night in the darkness of a clean sky the breeze weaves a quiet tale. Looking on in lonely splendor the stars smile and nod their heads as it pleases them looking for a cloud as a pillow and drifting into sleep. It is a grand old song sung countless times through many […]
We are who we are because of what we have done, where we have been, where we reside. We are different after experiencing new places, performing new tasks. I may never again go to Taxco, a colonial “silver city” of Mexico with cobblestone streets, but I am not the same person as I was before […]
Karla K. Morton: New and Selected Poems (2010), TCU Texas Poets Laureate Series The Wonder Is: New and Selected Poems 1974-2004 by Jan Epton Seale Poems require a particular kind of attention, and I can absorb the dense phrasings of poetry only in small doses. In 2011, I met both the 2010 and the 2012 […]
Nature’s color is wondrous; this photo has not been enhanced in any way.
An October day a few years ago: On this crisp bluest-sky morning, I am doing something I love, horseback riding with friends, but I’m not really focusing on what I am doing. Instead I am worrying about an appointment I have this afternoon, fretting about the need for this MRI I will undergo and mentally listing […]
Nature gives us so much, including simple opportunities for exercising our observational skills. We don’t have to be John Muir to appreciate the sensual gifts of nature, nor do we have to travel far. Here are some easy ways we can practice wonder. Be aware: Notice weather patterns: wind direction, cloud types, humidity levels. Notice plant and leaf shapes. Notice whether the […]
Sometimes the realities of our days include the illness of dear ones, news of sobering setbacks, problems that seem to us unfixable—all of us know these. But we can use wonder as a prism to break the hard light of each day into what the poet E.E. Cummings called “secret glories.” Cummings said that an […]
Studies in Color and Composition
Radical Retirement
Sean Dietrich's column on life in the American South.
A Glimpse into My Life & Passions
Joann Pensabene
Where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry.
pursuing a life of purpose
Writing our way to awareness
Living life outside the lines
A Story Circle Network blog for and by women
A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America
Practicing Wonder 