In the dream I grow pedicles

In a low-rent casino playing slots, hunched, making out meaning in glyphs. Winning, I can't cash out. There's a line behind me, someone yells to hurry but I'm learning and say 'learning.' And someone mouths back 'learning.' The machine starts throwing coins. We know what the other means.  [Read the previous non sequitur]  [Read...

Am I standing like my father

Or the idea of how he stands outside baggage, a pallbearer on smoke break, one hand in his pocket. I am trying to hone my posture, waiting for someone, pulled in various directions. Everything turns blue the longer I look. I never get tired of watching unclaimed bags ride the carousel. Clouds beyond tall windows become people. My parents ride a...

I remember smeared letters

About how crows know more than we'll ever. Daily, I walk curb lines. A quarrel of crows on the lawn, down from bare branches. A hawk in mid-dive, a hole forms in my yard. My penpal writes the world falls into shadow. Her study of sinkholes goes on and on. [Read the previous non sequitur]   [Read the next] ...

In the dream I was telling him about another dream

In which a voice says a hatch opens, something from the dream sticks around. We are trying to wrangle chickens, a stray cat, a beagle slips through a hole in the fencing. The neighbor's dog walks through the side yard.  [Read the next non sequitur] ...

2018 writing workshops for young writers in Portland and beyond

Years ago, a mother at a Portland-area middle school asked me to run a writing workshop. She wanted her daughter to have a creative outlet beyond what the school day provided. More than a decade later, the writing workshops continue to help young people sort out their worlds,  escape into their craft, and step forward to...

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