Category: writing

“Two-Hour Delay” by Abby E. Murray

Last Sunday, I shared Rattle Poets Respond offering “The Skaters” by Dante Di Stefano.

This Sunday, editor Timothy Green has chosen “Two-Hour Delay” by Abby E. Murray, which, to me, expresses perfectly the state of mind of these harrowing times in the US. (Link will open in a new tab, so you can read it right now or listen to the audio clip of Abby reading it. Make sure to also read Abby’s note that accompanies the poem.)

The opening lines are:

It’s February                                 and already
I’ve overspent my budgeted bewilderment

for the year, most of it on deep & constant
sorrow…

It’s true.

Interestingly, both Abby’s poem this Sunday and Dante’s poem last Sunday feature the counterpoint of a young daughter, enjoying the wonderment of winter, playing against the hard reality of current events.

It is my privilege to know both Abby and Dante, who each earned PhDs from Binghamton University. When I first joined the Binghamton Poetry Project, a community outreach program founded by Nicole Santalucia, Abby was our director. I was honored when Abby agreed to write a blurb for my chapbook, Hearts. It is so beautiful that I still tear up when I read it.

Mid-poem, Abby writes:

Belief is the new disbelief. Grief, not shock,

is this year’s renewable resource, and baby,
the harvest looks plentiful.

I’m really feeling it.

Thank you, Abby, for giving voice to what it is to be dealing with our present times.

Reblog: Poem by Deborah Marshall

I had to share this heart-breaking poem from fellow Boiler House Poets Collective member Deborah Marshall in the Silver Birch Press ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER series. Anyone who has been a care-giver for a loved one with dementia will likely find resonance with this achingly real scene.

Day 15, Bed 201B, Granger 2 by Deborah Marshall (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Series)


This has been one of the longest-running series for Silver Birch Press. You can find my post about my own entry here.

“The Skaters” by Dante Di Stefano

I had planned to not post today, taking a rest after the long streak due to Just Jot It January, but had to share this new poem, “The Skaters” by Dante Di Stefano, which is this week’s choice for Rattle Poets Respond, an ongoing series in which poets submit work written in response to something that is currently happening in the news.

Dante Di Stefano often blends elements of his family life into his work, as he does here. I experience this poem as both heart-breaking and comforting, as it expresses so intimately what it is to be a parent. I am also amazed by Dante Di Stefano’s ability to quickly craft something beautiful. Due to the nature of Rattle Poets Respond, poets submit work anonymously that has been written in response to something that happens from Friday to Friday, so there is not a lot of time to ruminate and edit. Di Stefano’s poems have been chosen for this series multiple times, attesting to his talent.

It is my privilege to know Dante, who did his PhD at Binghamton University and lives, writes, and teaches locally. He facilitates the reading series at the Tioga Arts Council where his spouse, Christina Di Stefano, is Executive Director. He has been unfailingly kind and generous to me as I make my way as a “late-blooming” poet.

If you would like, you can hear his voice reading “The Skaters” at the link above.

Thank you, Dante, for sharing your heart with us once again.

WordPress editor

Is anyone else having problems with the WordPress editor? Sometimes, when I’m working on a draft, it won’t let me go back to a previous paragraph to make edits. It seems to freeze on the paragraph I’m in. To get out of it, I usually have to look at a preview of the post and hit edit from there to open it in a new tab.

I’ve tried asking WordPress for help but no luck so far. Just wondering if others are seeing this happen.

Join us for Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/13/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-13th-2025/

2024/5

In late December/early January, many people look back over the year, reflect on its highs and lows, or create some kind of tally.

Sometimes, tallies are created for us, such as Words With Friends, which I have played for 13 years, helpfully telling me I made 8,875 moves in 2024. In my early years of WordPress blogging, they would send us each an annual wrap-up, which I enjoyed. Theoretically, I could put some stats together myself, but I don’t have the wherewithal to manage it.

Some of my poet/writer friends would tally their publications – and rejections – for the year. Given how 2024 went for me, the lists of both would be short, as would the list of completed poems, although I am very grateful that I managed to attend the Boiler House Poets Collective week-long residency at The Studios at MASS MoCA.

My 2024 was mostly taken up with personal and family health issues and my spouse B preparing for his retirement from IBM, which has now happened.

We begin 2025 in uncertainty. With daughter T and I still struggling to find full diagnoses and treatment, what we had imagined B’s retirement to look like is not going to be enacted, at least, not right away.

None of this is helped by the huge uncertainty about what will unfold when DT becomes US president again on Jan.20.

My father used to say “One day at a time” a lot. I am, though, by nature a planner, so I had trouble with the concept.

Now, sometimes, I feel that things are moment-to-moment or that time is somehow suspended or irrelevant.

So, yeah, 2025.

Guess I’ll strive for one day at a time…
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/07/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-7th-2025/

Poetry Pharmacy

I loved this piece about a “poetry pharmacy” that I saw this morning. Enjoy!

(I wish there was one near me.)
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Join us for Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/05/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-5th-2025/

One-Liner Wednesday: Just Jot It January 2025

Linda G. Hill of Life in Progress is bringing us Just Jot It January for the 11th year and you are all invited to join by linking your January posts to her blog each day!

To participate in One-Liner Wednesday and/or Just Jot It January, visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/01/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-1st-happy-new-year/

Celebrating ten years of the New York fracking ban

Ten years ago today, New York State announced an administrative ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. (in 2021, the legislature made it a law.)

To celebrate, Food & Water Watch, one of the lead organizations in fighting fracking, has compiled a free, commemorative e-book, which you can download here.

A large coalition of organizations, environmentalists, indigenous nations, scientists, engineers, and concerned citizens had spent years advocating for a ban, helped by many of our Pennsylvania neighbors who were suffering from the harms of fracking in their communities. There had been rallies, commentary in the press and at hearings, educational events, scientific papers and lectures, and showing up at public appearances by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo leading up to the ban, which occurred when the Dr. Howard Zucker, the Health Commissioner, said that fracking was too dangerous for New Yorkers’ health, ending what had been a very fraught battle over the SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement) that would have allowed fracking without need for site-specific studies.

Yes, that sounds very wonky but we were lucky to have lawyers and other experts in the coalition who could break everything down for us into understandable, actionable bits.

My role in the efforts to ban fracking was as a member of the Rapid Response Team. We would receive links to articles about fracking in the media and write comments to bolster the truth and challenge misinformation. It was intense at times but it meant a lot when I would be at a rally or event and people from other parts of the state would recognize my name from comments I had written. It was good to know that my little part was helpful to the cause.

When the announcement came from Albany ten years ago, there was rejoicing from all parts of the coalition and a celebration here in Binghamton, which had been the epicenter of both the pro- and anti-fracking efforts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend because I was sick with shingles. I was very grateful, though, and as excited as I could manage to be.

We aren’t having a party on this tenth anniversary but we are all awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul signing a bill that will add carbon dioxide to the existing fracking ban. The bill was passed in March and we have been urging her to sign it ever since.

Many bills get signed in December so it could be any day now, although I’m hoping it will be today.

It would be a fitting tenth anniversary commemoration and a reminder to the nation that New York says NO to fracking!

Update: On Dec. 21, Governor Hochul finally signed the bill. You can read the press release from coalition members here.

150th anniversary of the Vicksburg Massacres

(Photo by Justin Wilkens on Unsplash – Yazoo River at Vicksburg during 2019 flood)

Today, December 7, 2024, marks the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Vicksburg, Mississippi Massacres during the Reconstruction period following the United States Civil War.

I grant you that I would not know this were it not for Ellen Morris Prewitt, an author and fellow blogger, who has been researching this in relation to her own family history.

You can read about it all in this guest opinion piece in the Mississippi Free Press. You can also find the link through Ellen’s blog post on its publication. In looking back through her blog archive, you can find posts on Ellen’s journey of discovering her ancestors’ history and dealing with its impact on her own life.

There is a commemoration occuring this weekend in Vicksburg, recovering a history that had been largely forgotten. Thank you, Ellen, for your role in bringing this history back into our consciousness.

Update: Some photos from the commemoration are available on Ellen’s blog here.

“Hello, I Am Not a Soldier” by Abby E. Murray

Rattle Magazine has an ongoing series called Poets Respond which publishes at least one poem a week based on something that happened in the news in the last week.

Today, Rattle published a powerful poem from Abby E. Murray. I happen to know Abby because they did their doctoral work at Binghamton University where they served as director of the Binghamton Poetry Project when I first became involved with it.

The poem “Hello, I Am Not a Soldier” comes from Abby’s reaction to the incoming Trump administration’s nomination for various positions, especially defense secretary. You can read the poem at the link above, as well as hear Abby read it.

The lines that are resonating particularly with me this morning are

… I ration false comfort by knowing

it has never not been this way

What about this poem resonates with you?

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash. Due to Instagram requirements, I needed an image to go with this post and opted for my standard Vote for Democary ’24 image. Tags are also broken at WordPress right now; I hope to add some later when that function is fixed.)