Category: writing

SoCS: typos

I don’t like having AI butting in with suggestions while I’m typing and I really don’t want to waste the energy it takes to run it, so I disable it as much as possible.

I disabled Gemini from my main Gmail inbox. A casualty of that is that I also lost spell check.

Mind you, spell check was there long before AI started butting in, but now it appears that you can only have spell check if Gemini is turned on.

While I try my best, I’m afraid that some typos have snuck into my emails.

I hope that people forgive them in exchange for my authentic voice, unaltered by AI.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “typo.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/09/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-september-19-2026/

13 years!

WordPress helpfully reminded me that Top of JC’s Mind was born 13 years ago yesterday.

It doesn’t seem quite possible that I’ve kept the blog going that long, despite an avalanche of personal and world churn.

My thanks to everyone who has read or commented over this time, especially those who are helping buoy me in my current health/brain challenges.

I can’t guarantee another 13 years but I can hope for it…

SoCS: the reason

The reason I haven’t been posting much lately is that I am getting ready to have surgery for Chiari malformation in late October. There is a lot to do to get prepared, including a bunch of tests, which, along with the rest of my medical team visits has been taking up a lot of time and my limited brainpower.

I also was trying to keep some fraction of my volunteering and online advocacy going but now push has come to shove, as they say, and I am setting almost everything aside for now to concentrate on my health. I need to rest more and not tax my already over-taxed brain.

My poor brain has been spending the last 2 1/2 years without the right amount of cerebrospinal fluid and my symptoms seem to be intensifying a bit, so I need to acknowledge that. I knew I’d need to be on a long hiatus after the surgery, so I’m practicing now.

That being said, there are a few commitments that I plan to keep, the Boiler House Poets Collective residency at the Studios at MASS MoCA and the sing-along hosted by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton. I may not be much help for either of them but it’s important for me to be there.

I’m giving myself permission to stop trying to keep up with all the causes that I usually do, so I’m up-to-date to do comments or letters to elected officials and government agencies or just contribute to conversation. I will try to read just my favorite writers and columns. I need to get used to deleting things without opening them.

Ironically, I may post here a bit more during the weeks remaining before surgery. If there is less to keep up with, I might be able to reserve some time and brainpower to post.

If I don’t manage it, you’ll know the reason.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “reason.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/09/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-september-12-2026/

One-Liner Wednesday: Gloria Steinem on storytelling

“Please tell your own story. This is the most important thing we can do for each other: to know each other through stories, and I hope so much that whoever you are, listening right now, you are able to do what you love, to be also the unique person you are.”
~~~ Gloria Steinem, from an interview for Netflix’s Famous Last Words, released after her death was announced last week

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/09/09/one-liner-wednesday-not-a-clue/

One-Liner Wednesday: Dolly Parton’s goal in life

When Dolly Parton was asked about her ultimate goal in life, she answered:
“Just to be happy, to be as productive as I can be, make as many people happy as I can, make as much money as I can, so I can do for more people. And I just want the freedom to work, and everybody else can have the money.”

Mission accomplished, Dolly. Rest in peace. The good you have done in the world will live on for generations.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/09/02/one-liner-wednesday-getting-old/

One-Liner Wednesday: Midnight Mousers released!

Midnight Mousers, an anthology of noir stories featuring cats, including one from my writer-friend Devon Ellington, is now available through Amazon and coming soon from bookshop.org.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/08/26/one-liner-wednesday-ive-been-abandoned/

BCAC reading!

Just proving that I made it through the reading event at the Broome County (NY) Arts Council last night.

Things went well with poems, a short story in translation, music, paintings, and a film, all represented.

Thanks to Connie, Ann, and all the BCAC staff for making the America 250 exhibition and event possible. Thanks also to fellow poet Samantha Terrell who sent me this photo that her husband took while I was reading.

One-Liner Wednesday: BCAC America 250 reading tomorrow!

Binghamton NY area folks are invited to an event celebrating the Broome County Arts Council’s America 250 project tomorrow, July 16, at 6:30 PM, in which I will be participating.

This friendly invitation is part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays series. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/07/15/one-liner-wednesday-hey-dilly-dilly/

BCAC America 250 Project opening

Folks in the Binghamton, New York area can visit a special exhibition at the Broome County Arts Council, beginning today, July 3rd, and continuing throughout the month of July.

The official opening is tonight from 6-9 PM for First Friday. There will be visual and literary arts on display around the theme of our personal American heritage.

I am happy to announce that my poem, “Giovanni”, about my Italian-speaking, immigrant grandfather will be part of the exhibition.

On Thursday, July 16th at 6:30 PM, there will be a reading event in conjunction with the exhibition which will include the authors presenting their poems and personal recollections.

Please, join us, if you are able!

The Revolution Will Be Poeticized

(Graphic credit: WSKG Public Media)

WSKG, our local public broadcaster serving the Southern Tier of New York and Northern Tier of Pennsylvania, sponsored a call for poets in our region as we observe the semiquincentennial of the United States of America.

The call asked for poems addressing one or more of these themes:

Looking Back: history, founding ideals, and untold stories

Right Now: modern America, democracy today, and lived experience

Looking Forward: hopes for future generations.

They received 163 submissions from 25 counties, which I thought was a very impressive showing from our region’s poets!

You can read the ten winning entries here and listen to recordings of their work, nine as of July 2nd, here. (The link to the recordings may not be a permalink, but should work through July, 2026, at least.)

All the submissions were compiled into an anthology. At over 200 pages, it shows the breadth of talent from our region.

For my entry, I combined all three themes around the concept of women’s rights. I intentional wrote two 13-line stanzas, in honor of the 13 colonies that became states. Because I chose to only use the first names of the people I referenced, I also included an explanatory note.

We Work and Wait
by Joanne Corey

Remember the ladies, Abigail
wrote John before the Declaration
but after Sojourner, Elizabeth, Susan
and their sisters of the First Wave
Betty, Gloria, Angela
and their sisters of the Second Wave
Judith, Rebecca, Amy
and their sisters of the Third Wave
Tarana, Wendy, Jessica
and their siblings of the Fourth Wave
and the passage of 250 years
women still work toward
their full independence.

When Shirley ran in ‘72
my girl-self thought soon
but as Wave after Wave
crashed against that
highest, hardest glass ceiling
it inexplicably held.
Will it be my daughters
or my granddaughters
who see the First Ms.
President, the Second
Third, Fourth? So many
they don’t think
to keep count.

Note: People referenced in this poem in order of appearance: Abigail Adams, John Adams, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Judith Butler, Rebecca Walker, Amy Richards, Tarana Burke, Wendy Davis, Jessica Valenti, Shirley Chisholm. Quote from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 concession speech.

I’m grateful to WSKG for this project and the opportunity to respond creatively and share poems with the community. I hope you engage with the arts, whether as a creator or an interactor, at this critical moment in United States history.