19 March 2020
The jonquils in my yard have emerged, blooming like glory. I was struck while outside this morning, this first day of spring, with a kind of surreal awe at the beautiful constancy of this mother planet.
Even as we’re surrounded with fear or panic, which as a species we’ve seen again and again over millennia–famine, war, plague 😦 — even in the darkest days, there is the arrival of beauty.
Make art about what’s emerging.
18 March 2020
Nourish the body. Feed the soul.
Thinking on all the things that fed me these last few days. Yes, the meals shared with my son, but also my brother-man Eric in West Virginia, with his guitar, serenading the world with an Irish song, the silly memes my sister Adaire and I sent back and forth to each other, my young alum Katlyn and her friend selflessly working to collect donations for families and kids in need in quarantine, my current students excitedly discussing their short stories and poems in our online class, my friend Brigid writing a new comic who shared the pages with me, the sound of my friend Lynne’s laughter through the phone, my old dog sleeping on his purple pillow, my silly cat Moco biting my elbow because I was ignoring him, the humming of the bees across the burgeoning green in my yard, the multitude of good people out there doing good work teaching, sharing, cooking, donating–coping, all of them, in beautiful, humane, and community-minded ways.
So much, in the midst of this fear, to feed the soul.
Make art about one thing recently that fed your soul.
15 March 2020
Make art about the beauty to be found in quiet, every day details, a cup, a spoon, the shape of a flower, the way morning light lands in a corner. We’re surrounded by beauty ❤
13 August 2019
My brother Bill was the best uncle, always there, always loving. My kids were so blessed to have him, and we all miss him so much, but that Love he showed them continues, especially when it comes to our GrandPerson.
Make art about uncles, about why uncles matter.
27 May 2019
Make art about sacrifice.
Image by Filip Dukanic from Pixabay
30 March 2019
“Bend, mend—the echo isn’t lost on me-”– Jeff Hardin
Make art about what’s been mended, or needs mending.
Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
Remica Bingham-Risher, a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet, is the author of Conversion (Lotus, 2006) winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award and What We Ask of Flesh (Etruscan, 2013). She is currently the Director of Writing and Faculty Development at Old Dominion University. She resides in Norfolk, VA with her husband and children.
Purchase this beautiful book here.
Praise for Starlight & Error
There’s starlight and sunlight – and no error I could find – in this elegant book where the soul shines through every line. Only when we see how richly the poems matter to the poet can they come so close to us – entering with inescapable feeling and authenticity. We believe, and live, what each poem says, because the heart knows truthful detail. Central to our humanistic beliefs are the love of daughter, wife, stepmother, lover. Here, we learn this all over again, and how complex problems like memory become strengths. Only perfect craft can make it all happen, with experience leading the way. Remica Bingham-Risher has written a world-class book of poems. It’s the best of the best in American poetry. This is no imitation. This is the real thing.–Grace Cavalier
 In Starlight & Error, Remica Bingham-Risher redefines the beat of the heart not only in the adult situations of romantic love but also in the adult decisions within the love of family. The scope of her vision helps us see into our own lives with a sharper focus. At a time in America when we need hope the most, this book offers us an open path; we no longer “wonder what other secrets/ we’ve been keeping/ on this side of the world.” Here- in her songs of forgetfulness and of memory, songs of the closed fist and the open palm, songs of regrets and of gratitude-we clearly see a world worth fighting for.–A. Van Jordan
19 March 2019
Make art about what you found hidden in an old book.
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
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