This week, in trying to grapple with the enormity of the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria, I turned to writing poetry. The staggering numbers of the dead, wounded, and homeless (many of whom were…
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Tyre Nichols was, in his own words, an “aspiring photographer.” His favorite subject was landscapes. He also loved shooting videos while skateboarding. As one of his friends said, he used his camera “to capture the…
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The house where I live is around 130 years old. It has loads of character from bygone days. In size, it started small, then grew like a family over time. Its exterior is covered with…
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May I make a confession? While I love my mother, and I love being a mother myself, I don’t particularly love observing Mother’s Day. To me, the second Sunday of May feels like another “Hallmark…
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I've recently returned with my teenage-son from a two-week road trip. (His dad's currently traveling in China.) We drove from South Dakota to see my parents in North Carolina, with many stops along the way.…
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Empty seats at the National Mall prior to the inauguration (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters) Today I will not attend the inauguration of Donald J. Trump. Nor will I watch it on television or listen to it…
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WAKING IN TRUMP’S AMERICA Jan Steckel The Statue of Liberty’s arm is tired. She may have torn her rotator cuff. She still has dual citizenship, wonders if her passport is in order. She imagines lowering…
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I submitted this piece some days ago to run in my local paper, The Brookings (SD) Register. But it's likely to be obsolete before it's run, since Mr. Trump is so quickly squandering my good…
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This is a difficult day. I will spend it writing. I will spend it hoping, and praying in my way, that the man just elected President of the United States might, with our help, prove…
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Note: This blog post was submitted today as a speak-out to the Brookings (SD) Register, my local newspaper. Imagine a large piece of prime farmland where your relatives have lived for generations, getting married, working hard,…
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I'm trying to finish a novel. I'm under contract to produce a poetry anthology. I have a speech to prepare. No shortage of things to do. But sometimes a writer has to take time to…
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