"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Daily Prompt <3 Your Singing Place

Happy National Poetry Month! 

The Singing Place

 by Lily Long

Cold may lie the day,
         And bare of grace;
At night I slip away
         To the Singing Place.
A border of mist and doubt
         Before the gate,
And the Dancing Stars grow still
         As hushed I wait.
Then faint and far away
         I catch the beat
In broken rhythm and rhyme
         Of joyous feet,—
Lifting waves of sound
         That will rise and swell
(If the prying eyes of thought
         Break not the spell),
Rise and swell and retreat
         And fall and flee,
As over the edge of sleep
         They beckon me.
And I wait as the seaweed waits
         For the lifting tide;
To ask would be to awake,—
         To be denied.
I cloud my eyes in the mist
         That veils the hem,—
And then with a rush I am past,-—
         I am Theirs, and of Them!
And the pulsing chant swells up
         To touch the sky,
And the song is joy, is life,
         And the song am I!
The thunderous music peals
         Around, o’erhead-
The dead would awake to hear
         If there were dead;
But the life of the throbbing Sun
         Is in the song,
And we weave the world anew,
         And the Singing Throng
Fill every corner of space—-
Over the edge of sleep
         I bring but a trace
Of the chants that pulse and sweep
         In the Singing Place.
Make art about your singing place. 
birds and krishna

Category:

2016 Prompts, animals, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Love, Music, Nature, One Love, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Daily Prompt <3 What We Love

 

Happy National Poetry Month! Another favorite poet, the amazing Amy Tudor. 🙂 ❤ 

What We Love

Amy Tudor
I walk my old dog down a street called Holiday,
past trees whose white bark is trimmed with silver
in the light rain of early Spring. The dog’s small heart
is failing and the vet’s said he shouldn’t be out,
but if we walk slowly he can go four or five squares 
of sidewalk, then I let him stop and rest. 

He puts his nose up into the cool air, the wind ruffling 
his black and white coat and the gray on his ears, 
the wind smoothing over him. When he can’t go 
any further (halfway past that lovely ocre-colored house 
in my neighborhood, the one that’s half-hidden by linden 
and guarded by an iron gate), I carry him against my chest.

One day a black lab stood at a driveway gate
and barked at us as we passed.  My old dog 
looked from beneath half-lidded eyes and didn’t answer, 
and finally the other dog’s owner, an older man,
came out the screen door and called the dog to come back.  
The dog rose from where he sat, a hind leg dragging 
and his right-front hitched as he moved toward the house.  
I watched it go.  The man looked at me holding 
my old dog against my chest.  The man smiled.  
He raised a hand, half-greeting, half-regret.

I should say here that I know the rules I’m breaking.
I was told years ago that poets shouldn’t waste 
their time on trivial  things like dying pets. 
“It’s been done, and done, and done to death,”
a friend once said.  And it has, sure 
as death’s been done and done and done to death. 

So I’ll make a deal with you– forget 
what I’ve said about my dog in my arms, 
his nose in the air, the wind like hands.  And forget 
the man and his black lab that limped up 
those brick back steps.  I won’t write about any of that.  
I’ll write a poem about what we love instead. 

What we love is a night and a house 
wreathed with linden, the dark kept outside 
a circle of light over an iron gate.  It’s fine 
as silver paper or the wind of early Spring.  
What we love is a tree that grows outside our window 
as we grow inside its panes, a small good thing 
we bring home – or that follows us there — one day.  
Then it’s a friend that walks with us, gentle 
and welcome as rain.  It’s what we call to us to come 
when darkness is coming, and it’s what tends us, 
and what we tend. And finally it’s what we carry 
close against us, feeling blessed as we hold it 
and joy for what it gives and has given, 
for the comfort it’s been through hard, heavy days, 
forgiving every burden it’s been, grateful 
for even the grief we must carry when it’s gone, 
that soft, warm, impossible weight.

Make art about what you love.

tenderness

Category:

2016 Prompts, animals, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, Gratitude, Love, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Sometimes the Prompt Is the Body

Happy National Poetry Month! 

Daily Prompt Time!

spring song
by Lucille Clifton

the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is possible

Make art about the body of the planet. 

earth hand

Category:

2016 Prompts, animals, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, Gratitude, Nature, One Love, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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HeartWood Literary Magazine Inaugural Issue Live!

Thrilled to announce the first issue of HeartWood, a literary magazine in association with the Low-Residency MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan College!

Check out the beautiful first issue, including beautiful words from Rita Quillen, Ace Boggess, Abby Chew, Brent House, Bill King, Denise James, Roy Bentley, Faith Holsaert, Dorie LaRue, Michelle Lyle, Meggie Royer, James Engelhardt, Valerie Neiman, Marc Harshman, Ronald Jackson, C.A. Cole, Madhla Khan, Ron Burch, George M. Lies, Rhonda Browning White, Alma Luz Villanueva, Brent Watkins, and R.T. Castleberry. 

Also don’t miss our Appalachian Arts Interview with multitalented artist Kopana Terry! 

Let’s get to the heart of the matter! 

http://www.heartwoodlitmag.com/

_______________________________________

Thanks and BIG gratitude to the amazing editorial staff!

Managing Editor: Danielle Kelly

Fiction Editors: Danielle Kelly, Chris Chapman

Poetry Editors: Jessica Spruill, Mary Imo Stike

Nonfiction Editors: Susan Krakoff, Beth Feagan

Appalachian Arts Editor: Vincent Trimboli

Blog Manager: Allison Pugh

Technical Advisor: J Hackett

Y’all rock!

Category:

Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Call for Submissions, Creativity, Editing, Family, fiction, Friday Call for Submissions, Gratitude, litmags, Love, nonfiction, poetry, publishing, Writing

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Sometimes the Prompt Is a Heartbeat Away

Daily Prompt

Dreamt someone I love brought me a drum, and together we listened to its heartbeat. Make art about a drum, the sound of a drum, the drum as a call to prayer.

my drum

Category:

2016 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Love, Music, One Love, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Sometimes the Prompt Is Good Company

Daily Prompt

The pups and I had all kinds of feathered company on our walk this morning. Put me in mind of one of my mama’s favorite poets, John Greenleaf Whittier:

from “What the Birds Said”
“The birds against the April wind
   Flew northward, singing as they flew;
They sang, “The land we leave behind
   Has swords for corn-blades, blood for dew.”
Make art about birds, about flying, about flight, about what the birds said.
junco

Category:

2016 Prompts, animals, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, Gratitude, Love, Nature, One Love, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops

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Daily Prompt Catch-Up! Seeds, and Play, and Rebirth!

Daily Prompt Catch-Up!

3/25/2016

My grandmother Miz Pearl always said to plant on Good Friday. I haven’t gotten the garden in yet, but I did put in some basil and some seed potatoes. Seeds of a new season.

Make art about seeds.

Basil-Seeds-Mix-Soil-1024x683

3/26/2016

Easter gathering with family, and my favorite part was watching my loving generous adult sons play with the baby cousins. Make art about love and gifts across the generations.

3/27/2016

Make art about your own resurrection.

spiritual_awakening

Category:

2016 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, Gratitude, Love, One Love, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Sometimes the Prompt Hurts So Much

Discrimination, df:  treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit:

Make art about discrimination, about enduring discrimination, about surviving discrimination, about conquering discrimination, about eliminating discrimination.

discrimination-free-728x233

Category:

2016 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, freedom, Gratitude, Love, One Love, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Sometimes the Prompt Is How We Connect

Daily Prompt

Building the first issue of HeartWood 🙂 So excited to be part of bringing these beautiful words out into the world. Thinking about how art lets connect in ways unlike anything else, how it lets us reach across space, across time, across history, and commune with each other.

Communion defined: the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental, emotional, or spiritual level.

Make art about communion. Or about art as communion.

soul-connection-march141

Category:

2016 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Editing, Family, Gratitude, litmags, publishing, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Sometimes the Day Needs Some Magic

Praying for Brussels, praying for us all.

Category:

Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Dreams, Family, freedom, Gratitude, Love, Music, One Love, poetry

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