Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here. Today’s poem, Song for Autumn by Mary Oliver seems perfect for mid-October, when the anticipation of winter is always with us, even on days when summer seems to be asserting itself, although briefly. The…

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday blogs here. Mother, Summer, I by Philip Larkin, linked here to The Writer’s Almanac online, is a “different” look at summer’s end.  I’ve posted it this morning after a magnificent set of thunderstorms rolled in across…

Summertime and the living is, well, BUSY!!  I just taught two classes and need to focus on my next book, so this week, just like on your TV set, you’ll be getting re-runs.  Today and Friday I’m featuring blogs from spring of 2009, when many of you weren’t reading here.  In the spirit of CHUsday, here’s an old…

I’ll be back by Sunday for Sunday Poetry . . . But breathing deeply here today.  Hope you’re doing the same. Ah. . .

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  We began this page in March, and if you didn’t join us then, don’t worry.  This is a drop-in, drop-out adventure.  You can read about the purpose and inspiration behind Sunday Poetry here.     What’s your part?  Just slow down a little and come along for the read–or sometimes, for the listen.  If…

Recently I had the pleasure of driving through the neighborhood where I grew up.  Trips into the past are always bittersweet.  Show me a slide-show and I wouldn’t be able to pick out the tiny one-story house where I spent most of my childhood. Pink and gray shingles have been covered with dark wood.  The back has…

Thanks to all who participated in my Favorite Things giveaway by commenting here at Southern Exposure.  I really loved reading what you had to say.  You certainly cheered up anybody who took the time to read about the things that make you happy.  Random.org selected five winners and those readers will receive an autographed novel…

As my Christmas gift to you, I want to share a passage from Fugitive, my novel published in the 1990s, as I did last year.  Tate, the heroine, has moved to a cabin on land in the Ozark mountains, left to her by a father she never knew.  This is an entry from his journal. May your…

Did you know that Christmas cookies trace their lineage to medieval holiday rituals and Christmas cakes?  Christmas lebkuchen (gingerbread) was probably the first “cookie” prepared for the holiday, and by the 1500s Christmas cookies had caught on all over Europe.  The Dutch brought them to the US in 1600, and nobody’s looked back since.  This Christmas cookie…