The Stuff of Stories

What I Am Thinking About

I recently reread W.H. Auden’s poem Musee des Beaux Arts. It’s a beautiful poem that invokes the mythic story of Icarus. If you haven’t read the poem in a while or it is new to you, click on the title.

The image above is the painting called Landscape with The Fall of Icarus by Peter Bruegel which inspired Auden to write his poem.  There’s a lot going on in the painting, but if you look real close you can see the tiny legs of Icarus in the right hand corner just as he is about to disappear into the water.  He barely makes a splash and no one notices the terrible fall that took place before them. 

What I love about both the painting and the poem is how the timeless intersects with the ordinary.  The people in the painting do not even see the tragic, wonder-filled moment when Icarus falls from the sky, his wings melted from flying too close to the sun.  I think that is what writers, poets and artists all try to do,  remind us to watch for wonder in the everyday and help us translate our moments into the stuff of stories.

What I am Hearing

I freely admit it: Taylor Swift got me though the pandemic, especially her recent album Folklore. I never thought of myself as a Swiftie, but she drew me in with her last two albums. The songwriting is exceptional, and she is a good story teller. Still not tired of putting that vinyl on the record player. 

I also recommend the podcast Poetry Unbound on Spotify for outstanding listening and reflection on contemporary poetry. I love hearing the sound of the human voice as someone reads a poem or story. Poetry is meant to be heard as well as seen!

Plus: Fanny Mendelssohn! Why didn’t I know that Felix had a sister who was every bit as good at composing music as he was?? I recommend.

When I do not have my headphones on for a song or a podcast, I am outside listening for birds migrating through.  So far, we have had Grosbeaks, Orioles and Indigo Bunting swing by the feeders on their way north.  We have to keep a sharp eye because they never stay long.  The regulars are here too—Trashers, Flickers, White-crowned Sparrows and Carolina Wrens are among my favorites.

What I Am Working On

In March, I had a show of abstract mono prints and calligraphic paintings at The Monarch Art Factory. My art nearly always links back to my life as a writer in some way, and the Monarch show was a demonstration of that principle. I will be the featured artist at the Midtown Library from June to August. And I have a painting at The Big Show sponsored by the Sky Gallery at Springfield Branson Regional Airport.

I have several presses in my studio, from a 19th century tabletop Golding to a small etching press and a restored proof press. Working with the oil-based inks, print blocks and paper requires a meditative focus that meets my need for creative process, but gives me a break from writing. Plus, I fell in love with the smell of the ink and that wonderful feeling of discovery when I pull the print from the plate! If you would like to see samples of my show, plus other prints and paintings, go to the Art and Zines page on this website.

With spring and summer comes the task of revising, organizing and submitting the writing I have generated over the past year.  I have several new poems plus some micro and flash fiction that I am hoping to submit to lit mags and also organize into chapbooks for publication.  I also have plans to develop a zine series that will be part of my Snail Mail offerings to subscribers. (Have you signed up yet?) I will have some new words for you to read in the coming months! If you would like to read some of the stories, I wrote during the course of my career as a writer, I have archived some of my stories on the Words page of this website. My stories explore the complexities of human relationships and the desire we all have to make a connection, why we sometimes fail to make connections, and why we sometimes succeed. 

This summer, I plan to get back in the studio to work on a series of small still lifes and abstracts that will fit nicely into my Book of Days Series (more on that later!)  Like poetry, still life painting is moment-driven. Capturing a moment in still life is as much about holding on to silence as it is about capturing color, shape and light.

Finally, I was recently named the Teaching Fellow in Writing for the Innovation-in-Teaching Center at Drury University. It is a great honor for me because I know how dedicated and exceptional my Drury colleagues are in their teaching practice. As the year progresses, I will be sharing with you a few of the writing-to-learn projects I will help my colleagues develop for their university classroom that might be adapted to your own writing practice. 

From The Disorganized Library of Uncommon Things

Coco the tattered Monkey

People who know me, know my house is a Cabinet of Curiosities, filled with uncommon things I have collected over a lifetime. I have a love of old toys and other odds and ends that need a good home. In the last few years, I have begun to let some of these things go, releasing them “back into the wild” by way of a secret flea market cupboard at an undisclosed location. But a few of them stay—because they are strange and wonderful, and I can hardly believe someone took the time to create them, and because they have survived through time and serve as a kind of muse for me, keeping me in touch with my child self. Here in this space, you will always find a featured object from The Disorganized Library of Uncommon Things. Below is Coco the Tattered Monkey. He is a Steiff animal—without his signature yellow tag, but no less valuable to me. Found him at a holiday bazaar some years ago. He resides on a table next to a Corgi replica of The Yellow Submarine.

Now You

Do you have a favorite poem or painting that inspires you? Print out a poem or a picture, fold it like a letter you have written to yourself and tuck it into your journal or notebook. Then later, when you have a quiet moment to take up a pen, write about your inspiration piece. 

You will be participating in an old and honorable writing practice that inspires both poetry and prose: Ekphrasis from the Greek--to describe something. It’s rather like doing a still life with words!