“Writers don’t write from experience, though many are resistant to admit that they don’t. I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.”– American activist, writer, educator and commentator, Nikki Giovanni
Tag Archives: inspiration
Quotidian: Writers and Empathy
Quotidian: Write It by Joss Whedon
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Poetry: Ghazal for My Sisters
Be the woman you’re destined to be in this life;
graceful in motion, dance free in this life.
Buy tickets for any train, bus, plane or cab.
So much to hear, do, think and see in this life.
Speak up with body and voice, flowing hands—
you don’t always have to agree in this life.
Lay burdens down on altars, by lakes,
places to which you can flee in this life.
Eyes to the heavens, fingers to the sky,
hands up to feel the glee in this life.
All numbers on the scale act shady—
not everyone’s size three in this life.
Beads and bracelets, bridges and bayous.
Don’t have to be one she in this life.
A book, a pen, a solemn afternoon.
Savor your cups of green tea in this life.
Poems should be courted like a bride.
Get down on one knee in this life.
Come up for air beneath the glamour;
listen for your own plea in this life.
Every taste and flavor, every grain—
so glad you’ve come to me in this life.
-Allison Joseph, Valparaiso Poetry Review
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Dear Readers: Autumn Love Letter
Remember to tell someone you love them today, or text a friend telling them you still remember that good memory you made together.
Remember to go outside sometimes and really see the sky, drink it in for a minute, blue and gray and green. Take a deep breath and feel the fullness of your being, you are here, you are really here in that moment.
It’s autumn weather and it’s time to curl up indoors. Let peace sink in, and gratitude for the strong walls that keep out the cold and the weather but let you watch rain fall like a flurry of starry silver on your windowpanes. Make some easy Parisian drinking chocolate. Eat fruit. Watch The Flash and re-read old romantic classics like Pride and Prejudice and North and South. Because it’s getting colder, you’ll probably be out a little less – start cooking more. Enjoy your roommate and/or family. Have people over every few weeks, and serve them simple, warm food, like lemon chicken orzo soup and sweet potato casserole, and lots of wine.
Deep-clean your room and bathroom, and string up some Christmas lights. They use very little electricity so leave them on all night long and watch them blinking until you fall asleep. Listen to more jazz and folk as the weather turns. Don’t be cross, or cold. Get up 40 minutes before you need to leave for work, and turn on plenty of lights, and drink tea or coffee while eating eggs fried with thyme, and buttered bread, slowly.
Love your home. Love the weather. Make art. Stay warm. Autumn is here.
–Love Coffeegirl
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Illustration Love: Vintage Typewriter
He wrote a great deal, mostly because he liked the smell of ink from the pages rolling out of the typewriter.
Illustration by Holly Exley
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Travel as far and wide as you can
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Travel until your dreams find you
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Travel
Coffee and Irony 