Category: Literature

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A Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater: Still, Still, Still

A quartet of carolers opens the play with Still, Still, Still

We didn’t come straight home from Halloween festivities and put up our Christmas tree (it still isn’t up), but we have officially begun preparing our hearts for the Christmas season ahead. It began two weekends ago when we took our grandson Aidan to see The Nativity Tour at The Biblical History Center in Lagrange, Georgia. When it comes to Christmas, I do love the charged energy of cold weather, the laughter of shoppers, the gatherings with food and fellowship, and the lights. But Christmas, for me, lives in the quiet moments of deep thought and reflection – about ordinary things and how they connect to a greater concept.

The first reminders of the season came as we stood outside a sheepfold with our firstborn grandson, now a few months away from a driver’s license, learning about the likelihood that the manger may have been made of stone and the surrounding animals predominantly sheep. We discovered the reasons that a family in Biblical times may have turned away a woman expecting a baby for fear it would displace them if birth occurred and rendered their house unclean for 30 days. Having no room in the inn has been a frequent thought recently as I watch families unravel over candidates – brother against brother. Sadness, angst, grief over loss of relationships, and anger have all been the emotions of recent days. It’s hard to escape.

The second reminders of the season came as I watched my favorite Christmas book, A Christmas Carol, come to life on the stage. Is there any wonder that this particular adaptation of the play at this theater opens each year with a quartet of carolers singing Still, Still, Still? It prepares the minds and hearts of the audience to pay attention – to be still and watch for what is most important by looking in our own mirrors – to listen to the characters and the messages they bring. And yes, to sit right next to Charles Dickens himself, whose own story lurks in the shadows, and to wonder: what, dear friend, do I need to see in each of these characters and change in my own life as I seek joy this season?

Is there any greater time to hear this message than right now, today? It is the message of Christmas that beckons us to think not of our own rights and wishes, but the acts of service and giving to those around us to avoid those two hideous children, Ignorance and Want, who huddle under our cloaks. Children we try to hide, who are as clear and present as decaying front teeth behind a selfish smile. Is there any greater time to seek healing in our own hearts than Christmas?

Adults are often asked if we believe in Santa. Whether we do or don’t, the greater question, I think, is whether we believe in Scrooge. Somewhere in the quiet moments, I am reassured that even old Ebenezer himself, and even the Grinch, has hope – as do I, as does this nation. And this year, perhaps more than ever before, I welcome the ghosts to remind me to count my blessings.

Reminders: A Tricube

still, still, still

we listen

our hearts thaw

still, still still

quartet sings

voices lift

still, still, still

their words ring

all year long

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers
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Write the Poem: Day 5 of 5 of The October Open Write

Our host today for the last day of our October Open Write is Donnetta Norris of Arlington, TX. She shares her inspiration and process, which you can read below or here.

She encourages writers to write a poem on a theme using word associations. I’ll be hosting the first day of the November Open Write on November 16, so I’m using the day to set the stage for my prompt on that day – an invitation to a fantasy writing retreat in a location of the poet’s choice in a list style format, offering location, a snack, a companion critter, a writing utensil, an outfit, and a gift for everyone. Come join Donnetta today at http://www.ethicalela.com, and then November 16, return and join me as well. We’re having all kinds of fun!

An Invitation

save the date: November 16

you may choose to arrive by stretch limousine

we’ll be gathering in style for a writer’s retreat

whether castle or cabin or on your own street

we’ll spend the day writing in fantasy places

day one: a packing list poem ~ what’s in our suitcases?

so gather your words ~ select them with flair

I’ll be the door greeter to welcome you there!

you’ll need your location and writing utensil

something to wear, and perhaps a spare pencil

we’ll all need a critter (think Hogwarts style)

and a snack to share to write all the while

and then let’s bring one thing – a gift for the group

something to make us all laugh, cry, or hoot

what’ll it be? oh, I can’t wait to see ~

here’s a basket of tickets – take some – they’re free!

let’s keep Donnetta’s theme words sparking and growing

return in November, keep writing ongoing!

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Exhaustion

exhaustion sets in

unlike little cat feet fog

more like lion paws

I’m exhausted. Fall break begins today, and I’m ready for a rest.

I’ll travel to Kentucky for my daughter’s baby shower and spend time with her the first part of the week, perhaps doing some light hiking in her favorite state park and helping them find things for their new home. Then, I’ll come home and attend a book discussion group on Weyward by Emilie Hart and work on my writing deadlines for the book my writing group has coming out in 2025.

Normally, I don’t count minutes at work. I’m not a clock watcher for any other reason than being on time for meetings and deadlines.

Today is different. I’m ready to give my mind a break and enjoy some cooler temperatures in northern Kentucky. I’m ready to see some leaves changing color and feel the breeze nipping enough to make me zip my jacket.

I’m ready to rest.

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inspiration ~

I saw this social media post with a haiku plus 3 syllables, and it inspired me to take action:

Photo taken from a social media post about writing poems

My Response to the Leaf Writer

I did what you said

I found leaves and rocks, penned verse,

left for others to

discover….

We were camping at FD Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and the leaves are starting to change. I found an assortment of leaves and rocks and took the advice from the

post.

Mary Oliver verse on a rock

This writing on the rocks makes me think of my time in Asheville at the Grove Park Inn, which has been fiercely and steadily on my mind over the past week. I’ve heard much about Biltmore House, but very little is out there except for a statement that I could find on the Grove Park Inn’s website. Besides the old caged elevator and the mega-sized fireplaces with rocking chairs lined up in front of them, one of my favorite things to do at the Grove Park Inn during my visit there was walking around and reading the quotes from books etched into the rocks in the lobby. Perhaps this rock with its lines of poetry is one small way to keep the city of Asheville and its devout love of the arts close to my heart as they heal.

I do hope that The Grove Park Inn finds a way to temporarily host the National Gingerbread House Contest in November this year to another location if they are unable to have it there – which I’m sure may be next to impossible. My vote is for Atlanta, and I’d love to buy 15 tickets and bring the children and grandchildren!

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Book Talk Continued, an Illustrated Reverse Haibun

I shared, they listened

we engaged in the need for

more writing to heal

My haibun today is in reverse – my haiku is first, my narrative is second, but I’m also adding pictures to make it an illustrated haibun.

The evening kicked off with Craig Logan’s welcome to TUAC and introduction, and then I was honored to share the journey of my writing group’s most recent books after the publication of Bridge the Distance and Rhyme and Rhythm: Sports Poems for Athletes. I printed these notes and placed a copy on the podium to guide me through the evening.

Book Talk Agenda and Talking Points – October 3, 2025 6:30 p.m. TUAC – Thomaston, GA

Agenda Timeline

6:30 – Welcome/introduction/talk

7:00 – Stop talking and take Q and A, Drawing for free books from David’s Bust Vase

7:30 – Reception, Meet and Greet, Book signing

Talking Points

Thank you for coming!

Land Honorarium of Place, Native Tribes, People, Our Stories (keyword for the evening)

In The Beginning: 

Write before Read   – – the photograph of Dad’s stacks of books/me as a baby seated among them/ him studying/ firm roots in books and language

Crayons – writing in the books, or how I to read and write using Crayola names of colors

Childcraft – Harold Monro “Overheard on a Salt Marsh” Poem fixation, and….

a Child’s Garden of Verses – two copies by age 6

Checklist Book:  Memoir, my first book – Father, Forgive Me: Confessions of a Southern Baptist Preacher’s Kid

The Middle: 

Mother’s death, NCTE Convention, and Sarah Donovan with The Groups at www.ethicalela.com that emerged ~

Bridge the Distance (Oral History Project through Oklahoma State University)

                        Rhyme and Rhythm (an invitation to an anthology – read Golden Shovel)

And then……we coded prompts since 2016.  Predominant themes emerged:  Healing, Assessment, Community Spirit, Technology uses, and Teachers’ needs for shorter texts and stories

Who wants to work on which books?  We made groups.  

  • 90 Ways of Community by Sarah Donovan, Maureen Ingram, and Mo Daley (Read poems from here) – Mo Daley’s poem – “She Told Me Many Months Later”
  • Just YA an anthology of over 15 writers
  • Words that Mend: The Transformative Power of Writing Poetry for Students, Teachers, and Community Wellbeing and The Authors
  • ePoetry by Sarah Donovan and Stefani Boutelier was picked up by a a major education publisher and will come out in 2025
  • Assessing Students with Poetry Writing Across Content Areas: Humanizing Formative Assessment for Grades 6-12 by Sarah Donovan, Barb Edler, Kim Johnson, Anna Roseboro, and Gayle Sands is under contract with Routledge and will come out in 2025

The Conclusion:

Keep writing – set a timer – tell your story. Write it down. SHARE it. Your story matters.

Q&A

*Photos shared with me by Bethany Johnson and Briar Johnson, and I am ever appreciative of my sister-in-law and my husband for their outpouring of love and support!

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Open Write September Day 5

Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the final day of our September Open Write. She encourages us to celebrate our writing group through poetry of any form today. You can read her full prompt here and read the poems of others. On the heels of a celebration of the Labor Day launch of our books Words that Mend and 90 Ways of Community earlier this week, I can’t think of a better way to write today than in thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude for a group of writers who make a difference in how we live and how we think.

If you don’t have a writing group, I encourage you to find one ~ and you can use this one as a great model for a face to face group in your own corner of the world after spending a few hours looking back at the prompts and the feedback. Get the books, read them, and feel the deep need to fix places you never knew were broken. Too many of us have lost our footing and found ourselves floundering and then discovered the power of writing and what it can do. Today is a day to celebrate the power of the pen and the ways it connects us with others. Anna Roseboro said it best at our celebration: if poetry can do this for us, imagine what it can do for our students. We all need poetry and writing in our lives.

Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

Belonging

we step from shadows

into glowing candlelight

from our scars

we discover soothing balm

from mourning and grief

into reassurance there is

reason to go on

we come from loneliness

to take a hand of belonging

from disconnectedness

to welcoming acceptance

we leave our fears

step into the fold of peace

we leave disappointments

find spiritual hope

we feel our hearts

pulled at the words

someone else’s

shadows

scars

mourning

grief

loneliness

disconnectedness

fears

disappointments

are our own moments

our own memories

and we know

we know

we know

this is no ordinary

writing group

these are

our lifelines

our people

our friends

our family

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Open Write September Day 3 – Decades of Music Poetry

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the third day of the September Open Write, Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host. She inspires us to write music of the decade poems by creating new original poetry from borrowed lines of favorite songs, mashed up like a Cento poem all from lyrics. You can read her full prompt here.

Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com

When the Moon is in the Seventh House

do you…..YOU….

feel like I do?

would you like to swing on a star,

carry moonbeams home in a jar?

could I have this dance

for the rest of my life?

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow

would you still be mine?

where have all the

cowboys gone?

where have all the flowers gone?

are you going to San Francisco?

do you want to know a secret?

do you promise not to tell?

{{this is the dawning of the

age of Aquarius}}

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Open Write September Day 1 – Cheering the Fight

7:30 a.m. – Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, we are writing poems in our writing community. Join us and read the poems, and maybe write your own. Check back later to see how I’ve spun the prompt for today.

Maureen, our host at www.ethicalela.com, has offered several prompts in celebration of our book launch party tomorrow. I have chosen three to write today, and I share them below. Please join us tomorrow for our book launch. I’ll be wearing light blue for prostate cancer and dark blue for colon cancer to cheer Dad as he begins his treatments in the coming days. Ironically, one of our book covers is light blue, and another is dark blue.

Tomorrow – September 22, 2024 – we are having an Online Publication Party to celebrate this bounteous time in our poetry community. Please join us for a live event on Zoom/YouTube at 12 PM PST/2 PM CST/3PM EST and bring friends with you…we are going to celebrate! 

Guts (a triolet nod to Fran)

adopting a diet for healthier guts
black beans and yogurts and probiotics
changing our diets for glands and but(t)s
adopting a diet for healthier guts
cheering on polyphenols in nuts
guarding our colons from xenobiotics
adopting a diet for healthier guts
black beans and yogurts and probiotics

Jiu-jitsu Dodoitsu For the Win (a dodoitsu nod to Mo)

I’m shopping today for blues
two new cancer-ribbon hues
for dad’s diagnosis news
this fight he won’t lose

Bonny Blue Naani (a naani nod to Leilya)

a light blue ribbon
worn through September
on a dark blue shirt
we’re cheering Dad’s treatments

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Day 1 of August Open Write with Wendy Everard

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the August Open Write, Wendy Everard of New York is our host for Dadaist poems. You can read her full prompt here. This form is fun – it involves finding an article and cutting out words, then pulling them out in random order to use them to form a new poem.

I took a copy of the July 22, 2024 The New Yorker and wrote down the lines of the cartoons, then cut them up on swatches of a page of a yellow legal pad. Here’s what I dada’ed:

the heat
his ashes
he didn’t want

I’ve enjoyed
smash open the pinata
while you wait

hold on –
as it became clear that
for me to
see you in
the requisite strength

are we sure
same pirate
I don’t love

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Lines

it messes with my

mind and heart, these

Titanic exhibits like

the one in Atlanta,

the Immersive

Experience

(no pun intended,

I’m sure, but I’d

have chosen a

different name)

I learned about the

Titanic as a child when

an elderly couple in

our church were

on the next boat out

late for their honeymoon

on the Titanic ~

the Testers, Mr. and Mrs.,

lived because they were

late, and for all the

cussing I might have

muttered missing my boat,

I’d have learned a

thing or two about

what it means to

let things go

and move on

I can’t imagine the terror

inside the hearts on

those lifeboats

all the loved ones

watching their own

sink to their deaths

in freezing darkness

as they rowed on

I wonder if F. Scott

Fitzgerald started

at the end of Gatsby

and then went to the

beginning to start

again

so we beat on

boats against the current

borne back

ceaselessly into

the past

which is why I

began taking photos

of snippets of

lines in the exhibit

wondering what

poems might

emerge, turning the

grief back to joy