Category: Creativity

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Open Write Day 1 of 3 September 2025 with Kelsey Bigelow

Today’s host of the first day of September’s Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Kelsey Bigelow, who works as a mental health poet and renowned author of books, slam poetry events, and writing workshops in Iowa. You can read all about Kelsey and visit today’s prompt and poems here, as she inspires us to think about what lives on the “good side of memories.” Today’s writing is rooted in stream of consciousness writing that can live on in that form or be the start of one that takes root for another.

It’s All in the Kneading and Knowing

the happiest thing

I’ve ever tasted was that moment

when in my grief

soul-gutting tears in a

big-enough-for-all

walls of a VRBO

reverberating sniffles

and crumpled Kleenex

and happy laughs of

oblivious grandchildren playing

with their newest cousin

trying to teach him

to walk at six months

and believing he could

the strains of Amazing Grace

sung to a guitar

by the rest of us trying

to sing with the best of us

believing we could

as we all sat piled high

on the curved couch

pajama-clad, remembering

*******. ********

then one broke the silence

asking for a happier moment

in the autumn – another together

time when smiles returned

then another added

yeah, when

any of us can

make a word from tiles in

turntable Scrabble

and another added

yeah, and only if Mom

brings the pumpkin bread

and right then

in those delicate moments

I knew three things:

that I had taken the reins

as the newest family elder and

that tradition of togetherness

lives on in food tried first

as a flopped recipe

when they’re toddlers, then tested

again and again to perfection

by the time they’re teenagers

and can’t think of gatherings

without it and

that families too

are like that ~

learning to walk

learning to sing

learning to bake

learning to live on

believing

through all the tears and laughter

that together

we can

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Broccoli

This month, I continue writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s prompt asks us to describe broccoli to someone who has never seen it before.

How To Save a Fairy

Imagine a miniature

forest with lush emerald trees

a canopy for fairies

sparkling magic beneath

but a foul odor

permeates the land

threatening the fairies

their twinkle-lights fading

in the putrid stench

then the wicked witch

steps from her lair

behind the twisted trees

holding her wrinkled green

fingers up grasping power in the air

her evil laughter beckoning

one brave fairy to come close for a deal

you love children? find them,

find those who will eat of the

foul-smelling trees that will

not harm them but will save you

and my noxious potion spell that will

kill you will only make them grow stronger

so the brave fairy

told the others

who told the birds

who told the woodland critters

who told the house pets

who prompted the parents

to cook all the miniature trees

we call broccoli

and feed them to the children

throughout the land

children in every house balked

but they ate the broccoli

to save their bedtime story heroines

from the evils of the wicked witch

and her foiled fairy fiasco

after dinner, all the mothers took

their pots of boiling broccoli water

to the edge of the woods and

slung the gut-churning water into the

forest, where the fairies watched

from afar and glowed brightly

as the screams of the witch

could be heard throughout

Fairy Land: “I’m melting! I’m melting!”

And that is why children, to this day,

will eat their broccoli – to save a fairy!

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Alone

This month, I continue writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s prompt inspires us to write about where we feel most alone.

I feel most alone

in a thick crowd

silly, I’m sure it seems, but

the trees and birds

hold greater friendship

than a sea of ten thousand

faces without names

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September Tricube

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s form is a Tricube – 3 stanzas of 3 lines with 3 syllables each. Topic today: Not good nor bad – just writing. Card 41.

skies of blue
clouds of white
apples red

brand new shoes 
classroom light
comfy bed

Elmer's glue
craft delight
(tape instead)

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A Pair of Loved Shoes

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s asks to share about a pair of shoes we loved. Or a dress. Or anything worn or how we dressed all wrong. You get the idea.

Which Pair?

there’s been this pair and that pair, even

Great Granny’s bronzed pair, but nothing

compares to my birthday gift

Ugg pair from my sister-

in-law and brother

(a much loved pair)

for-sore-feet-

repair-

pair

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Secret Life

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today, the post asks about the secret life or hidden dialogue of our pets or plants – or whatever lives in our homes.

Cat and Mouse Games

I think our garage ghost’s name is Felix

born in Waycross, Georgia in 1944

died in Brunswick, Georgia in 2025

a real cat all his life, a preacher

who knew the pleasures of wine

and wanted to taste the whole world

with every taste bud on heightened

sensory awareness because when

my brother and I left Five Star Bank

we ran into Al Brown

the church drummer who told

us in the Tramici’s parking lot that

our dad had come to him in a dream

and told him Heaven was great, that

…you can go anywhere you want, Al!

I was just in Minnesota yesterday….

and I stopped in my tracks

drew in my breath ~ because

that told me Dad and Gus

my sister-in-law’s father

are paying visits to their children

that they’d been to see Greg in

Minnesota (we know no other

soul in Minnesota)

Greg, my sister-in-law’s brother

who knew me well enough already

at the reception during the

sibling speeches to fear I might

push him in the pool

and now the cat and mouse are

on the loose

prowling around in my

garage posing as orbs

for the cameras

keeping me up all night

putting me on heightened

sensory awareness

Felix and Gus

a cat and a mouse

playing games

….as always….

*references to Felix the Cat and Gus, a mouse from Disney’s Cinderella

**Dr. Felix Haynes and Dr, Gus Hernandez died three months apart earlier this year

***One was a Southern Baptist, one a devout Catholic…..and now we have a Baptist and a Catholic ghost teamed up visiting friends and family in the afterlife. One shows up as an orb on Ring cameras, and one sets off fire alarm. Shenanigans.

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Good At

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I continue this month to forge through the deck. Today’s prompt inspires us to tell something we are good at.

I was never good

at facing the truth but am

good at telling it

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Peace

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s prompt is about what brings peace and what is not peaceful in your day. As a fan of visual poetry, I chose the form of the breathing wave today the way it may appear on a screen in a medical office (scroll fast and you can see the wave appear in the line breaks.

Where Peace Lives

I’m up at 5 a.m. writing

most days, even today – a

weekend I’ve longed for

after months of long

trips home to clean out

Dad’s house. Peace awaits

~ coffee, silence, cool gray screen

backlit keyboard, eye masks ~ where

the meditations of mind and memory

converge without to-do lists

and deadlines and data

keeping the pulse in

check, breathing

slowly, deeply

where I belong

before the clock

kicks in, governing

routine like a thief of

time, getting in the way

of the relaxed pace of

living without all the

demands awaiting

outside these

doors in the

real world

I find my

peace

here

…..

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Favorite City

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Today’s prompt asks us to tell all about our favorite city.

Fisher Price Little People City

Little People cars

drove around my favorite

childhood neighborhood

we filled up gas tanks

turned up floors of parking decks

drove past the fire house

we took kids to school

ambled back home past Main Street

settled in at home

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We Have a Ghost

Last month, I started writing posts from prompts in the Writing Down the Bones Card Deck by Natalie Goldberg, shared with me by my friend Barb Edler of Iowa. I’m continuing this month so that I can experience the entire deck of prompts. Goldberg’s book was among those recommended at the top of my reading list by the chair of my doctoral committee a decade ago, and the messages about writing remain timeless.

Today’s topic: How are you invisible?

I’m not invisible, but our ghost is the closest thing to invisible around here, even though the presence is translucent. It’s an orb.

We’ve done a lot of unearthing of things around here lately. First, all the trees came down and I wonder whether some poor Civil War soldier is still looking for the missing button on his coat. Maybe he thinks it is in our garage.

Next, we lost Dad in June and have had to clear out seven storage rooms and his house, and in the process of preparing for the estate sale, I’ve brought home things to price – – such as old coins and all my great grandfather’s briarwood pipes and other relics that might have conjured up a spirit following them here with me.

I knew we had this invisible ghost when my eyes flew open, wide awake suddenly from a deep sleep where I thought I’d heard a noise. I turned on the camera in the garage, certain I was going to have to call 911 for an intruder. But that’s not what I saw.

I saw an orb. It was hovering and floating around just as you’d expect any ghost to do, all ethereally, very demure out there, not rattling any chains or slamming any objects around. It floated over between the camper and the truck like it was planning for how to pack when we go camping, and then it went off screen toward the Home Depot clearance sale fig tree before returning to the garage and floating unhurriedly in between the cars.

My husband woke at this point and asked what I was doing.

“We have a presence,” I told him. I added, “Don’t think me crazy, please. I have proof.”

When I explained I was waiting for the ghost to come back out of the garage, he pointed out it might have slipped through right underneath the camera where I couldn’t see it exit. Then, as an afterthought, he pulled up the camera in the living room – the one we use to check on the dogs – and there was no orb floating around in there. Good thing – – that’s just on the other side of our bedroom door.

I snapped a few photos, but then realized I needed to renew the Ring subscription to capture any video.

Flash forward to two nights ago, and I now see two orbs in one of the videos.

And last night, I captured sound for the first time. We’d gone to bed shortly before the time on the two videos that prompted the camera to record. I will check those out today and post them another day so that you can hear the clicking and breathing of this ghost. Perhaps this evening we will move more cameras around to this side of the house so that we can see from other angles as well.

Here on the Johnson Funny Farm, we continue to attract all the quirky animals, people, and spirits. We look forward to finding out who this is and how we can help. We feel it’s a friendly presence with some kind of unsettled business. And like all the wildlife around here, it has come to a safe place to find some peace.