writing : blog
It is by logic we prove. It is by intuition we discover. -Henri Poincare Recently, I was asked to speak to a class of seniors at my alma mater, Guilford College. After the class convened, we set out across campus and hiked a short distance into the woods on campus. At a clearing, we sat on the ground to talk….
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Oh, my. I love to shop on Etsy. Real artists making art. I’ve made a conscious commitment to buy handmade. My dream is to create a small shop at 37day.net that will include only handmade objects that relate to my blog and book (did I mention I’ve written a book?), so in service to that vision, I’ve been exploring Etsy…
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The first principal of nonviolent action is that of noncooperation with everything humiliating. – Cesar Chavez I was in my early 20s, in graduate school studying literature (mainly American) and art history (mainly the figure of the artist in fiction). There’s a huge employment market for people who have studied the figure of the artist in fiction, of course. My…
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A Table in the Wilderness I draw a windowand a man sitting inside it. I draw a bird in flight above the lintel. That’s my picture of thinking. If I put a woman there insteadof the man, it’s a picture of speaking. If I draw a second birdin the woman’s lap, it’s ministering. A third flying below her…
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With thanks to the poet, another poem you’ll find in Life is a Verb: Undressing the Muse When Sonny Rollins walked onto that bridgeto play his saxophone to the windhe was stepping off the stageand into the woodshed.It wasn’t a failure of nerve, of course,nor was it only a deepeningof his craft. He was breakinga voice apartand refashioning it.He was…
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A Measuring Worm This yellow striped greenCaterpillar, climbing upThe steep window screen, Constantly (for a lackOf a full set of legs) keepsHumping up his back. It’s as if he sentBy a sort of a semaphoreDark omegas meant To warn of Last Things.Although he doesn’t know it,He will soon have wings, And I, too, don’t knowToward what undreamt conditionInch by inch…
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It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. -Stephen Mallarme This one is for Trudy. Before you read today’s poem, I want you to do something for me. I want you to find a small box in your house or office, something with a lid. Perhaps even something you love–a trinket…
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Poetry should…should strike the reader as a working of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. -John Keats We are a nation of seekers. We look outside ourselves for salvation, for what our perspective should be, for how and what to think, when turning the looking glass inward would better serve us. Another Billy, a different one, one…
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A hip hip hooray out to little Albert Einstein on his birthday today. As he knows better than anyone, age is relative (har-de-har-har). So let’s send a shout out to the man whose name is synonymous with genius. And let’s remind him that he owes his first wife, Mileva Mari?, an apology, a life back. When Mileva Mari? turned 15,…
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Each summer for more than a decade, I’ve traveled to gorgeous Portland, Oregon, to teach at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. Culture Camp, we call it. Faculty and students from around the world create a fantastic residential community, on the Reed College campus, centered around cross-cultural, diversity, and other issues. I’ve been so fortunate to create and teach workshops…
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Patti Digh is the author of six books, including bestsellers Life is a Verb and Creative is a Verb. She travels the world teaching others about mindfulness: to live fully, love well, let go deeply, and make a difference. Patti's comments have appeared on PBS and in The New York Times, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the London Financial Times, and many other international publications. She writes a thank you note every morning.
