Tag: inspiration

  • Winter Solstice, Not an End but a Beginning

    Winter solstice brings a short cold day. Tree’s buds wait hidden under red-brown coverings their leaves tightly wrapped around one another compressed and silently thinking – the end is near. December roses tremble together on leafless stems their hope flutters while sun’s feeble rays fade. But now, in the long dark night, roots remember that the…

  • Favorite Black Authors – History Through a Literary Lense

    My interest in writing realistic fiction is due in large part to two wonderful authors, James Baldwin and Dennis Brutus. I met James Baldwin at a poetry workshop of Dennis Brutus, a South African poet and activist, in Philadelphia.The literary works of favorite Black authors provided a lense to see history left out of the…

  • The Waxing Gibbous Moon’s Visit

    Who left the moon on last night? In the night, I woke up wondering who was shining a light through my window so late. A few hours earlier – around midnight – it was the flashing lights and sirens of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. Brooklyn, Friday night. I pulled back the curtains and saw the moon,…

  • Winter Song in Brooklyn

           Winter Song A cardinal tapping at my window called

  • Finding the Calm Sea in the Holiday Storm

    Family, lack of family–either one can be a cause of anxiety during the holiday season. Where the happy memories live, the loney ones also lurk around the corner and always seem to come visit this time of year, no matter how careful and festive the planning. What to give, whether to buy, and floods of commercial…