Writing Exercise: Color List – Gray
Driving towards downtown Chicago recently It seems like all the color is gone now outside, and days like the one in my photo here are more prevalent. Thus, the color for December's exercise is gray. For the uninitiated, the idea here is to come up with ways to evoke gray without mentioning the color itself because one of the [...]
Encounter with Art on the Midway Plaisance in Chicago
In Chicago you don't have to go to a museum to experience art. Rather, you'll encounter it on your everyday ramblings. Case in point: The other day I dropped one of my sons off for an appointment in our neighborhood, and as it wasn't quite dark yet, I took the opportunity to walk the nearby Midway Plaisance, one of Chicago's [...]
My Favorite Poem: Herbsttag by Rainer Maria Rilke
Today is the last day of November, an appropriate time to share with you my favorite poem, Herbsttag (Autumn Day) by Rainer Maria Rilke. Many of you probably know him as the author of Letters to a Young Poet, a classic in the literature about writing and finding a vocation. However, Rilke is one of the “big guys” of German [...]
A Hot Chocolate Party in the Cold
This blog makes me do things, such as following through on fun schemes like having a hot chocolate party outside, in the cold. Our dotted pumpkin showed signs of wilting, so yesterday, when dinner wasn't quite ready yet as the kids got home, I decided to do the hot chocolate party while we still had the pumpkin as a [...]
A Dotted Lantern for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is not Pumpkin Day, but I still had this pumpkin from our trip to the pumpkin farm. And I hadn't gotten around to carving it into the polka-dot lantern I plan to make every year. So yesterday, as I was contemplating our last pumpkins to turn into pie and soup, I simply could not chop this one up. [...]
Why a Writers Residency is a Good Idea
The studios at VCCA are housed in the former barn complex. During my second time there, we had a terrific blizzard. This pictures shows the brilliant day after the storm with more than a foot of snow on the ground. A student recently asked me whether I had ever done a residency. If so, had I found it useful? [...]