Abandon professionalism. Hard work, always, is essential, but the notion that there is such a thing as “success”—a large audience, critical acclaim, and money—is, for nearly all of us, a delusion.
New Year’s Day
I am wishing all of you, friends, acquaintances and strangers, who are kind enough to read these thoughts, the most beneficial, peaceful and fruitful new year—a cold winter with lots of snow, a spring full of bloom.
Pip Goes to Taos
Pip watches intently as though monitoring our progress through the sixty miles from overpopulated Santa Fe to the little mountain town of Taos.
Broken Hearts and Puppy Dogs
Dillen ends with her arms raised high above her head, exhorting her audience, and particularly the women in her audience, to be shining stars, rising to shed our light on the parched and desolate landscape that surrounds us.
Ten Favorites: A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
So often, when I’m teaching in these uncelebrated venues to women who sometimes seem lost to my word, I feel fruitless and frustrated; yet any one of the many women I have taught might, also, has written WOW next to startling lines in a poem they would never have read without my class.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning: Adrienne Rich and Colette
So often, when I’m teaching in these uncelebrated venues to women who sometimes seem lost to my word, I feel fruitless and frustrated; yet any one of the many women I have taught might, also, has written WOW next to startling lines in a poem they would never have read without my class.
Women, Dogs and Mountains
Most of the lone hikers I meet, often accompanied by one or two dogs, are women, young, old and in between.
Girls, Ponies and Horses
Galloping across a dusty plain may be the best possible preparation for dealing with the complexities of negotiating a woman’s life in the twenty-first century.