"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

Posts tagged ‘Mama’

Daily Prompt Catch-Up <3 Sun, Rain, and Small Beauties <3

8 May 2017

End of the semester, so I’ve been drowning in final grading.

Make art about feeling overwhelmed.

Person under crumpled pile of papers with hand holding a help si

9 May 2017

Had some morning company 🙂

Make art about chickens in the road.

chickens

10 May 2017

So much rain here lately. Making the local weathermen happy, with their maps and pointers. 🙂

Make art about a weather map.

weather map

11 May 2017

My son’s sweetie got a new kitten, Baloo 🙂 Between him and my GrandPerson, our lives are filled with glorious baby things.

Make art about small beauties.

12 May 2017

Hung my sheets out to dry. Love climbing into them after they’ve come in that same day from the line.

Make art about the smell of the sun.

sheets

13 May 2017

Today was my daddy’s birthday. He could find the funny in everything, and he loved my mama more than breath. He wrote us letters to tell us kids all the things he loved about our mama.

Make art about how much you love someone.

how do i love thee

14 May 2017

Another Mother’s Day, and I can’t help but think of all the women who mother in ways other than the traditionally expected.

Make art about nontraditional nurturing.

nurture

15 May 2017

Reading Whitman before bed last night. For Whitman, not only was poetry a kind of democratic action, but democratic action should itself be understood as a kind of poetry.

Make art about democratic action as poetry.

WaltWhitman

Category:

2017 Prompts, animals, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, Love, Nature, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Daily Prompt Love <3 What Mama Said About Courage

1 Marc h 2017

My mama had all kinds of sayings, repeated enough that we called them Mamalisms. Thinking on those today, especially what she had to say about courage. 

“You have to have the courage of your convictions.”

“Courage doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. Courage means being afraid, and doing it anyway.”

“Sometimes you’re gonna find, when it’s what’s right, you have to be strong enough to stand even if it means people won’t like you.” 

‘People tend to think of courage being loud, but more often than not, real courage is quiet, and goes unnoticed, just people doing the right thing, the thing their conscience tells them is what needs to be done.”

“Sometimes, you have to not only be brave for yourself, but brave for others. To whom much is given, much is expected. If you have the resources to fight on someone else’s behalf, someone weaker or less equipped than you, then you have a responsibility to do that.”

I think of how often she fed people, took people in, or how she took care of her patients in her job as a nurse, especially quietly explaining to our young parish priest, why he was not only wrong, but defying God,  when he admonished her, saying that she should not be caring for AIDS patients back in the 80s.

When I write those final lines, I don’t want to think I wish I’d had more courage. 

Make art about daily acts of courage, about being willing to defy expectations or criticism to do what you think is right. 

Fountain pen writing courage

 

 

 

Category:

2017 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, fiction, Love, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

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Daily Prompt <3 On Boys and Men

8 June 2016

This was one of my mama’s top favorite poems. I have so many memories of her reciting it, again and again. Thinking a lot lately about the sons I’ve raised, about the young men I teach, in a culture where there’s so little guidance, so many confusing messages, on what it means to be a man. 

Make art about boys, or about what it means to be a man. 

If

 

Category:

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

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Daily Prompt :-) Hands & Heading Off

8 May 2016

Under the weather and missing my mama this Mother’s Day, thinking about her hands–her mother’s hands, her gardening hands, her nurse’s hands. She never had a manicure. I can’t recall her ever having her nails painted at all, but man, it seemed the whole world rose from those hands. And now, I watch my daughter, a first-time mama, her hands so gentle and loving as she cares for my grandson. Yep, the whole world ❤ That’s what it is. 

Make art about a mother’s hand. 

DSCN2562

9 May 2016

So many graduation activities this weekend, last grades going in, so many of these angel babies heading off to next adventure. 

Make art about setting off into the unknown. 

step-off_big

Category:

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

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Sometimes the Prompt Is Left Behind For You

Daily Prompt
 
Just drafted a poem called The Words Mama Left Me.
 
Make art about inheritance.
 
inheritance_506x163

Category:

Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Family, Writing, Writing Prompts

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