Book

It’s a tortoise. It’s slow. It’s in process. And this is the page where any progress on the book will be posted.

(Would it be at all relevant to say that I am working right now on publishing a book of my students’ work? The book is a collection of essays and poetry and letters on the American Dream and through the process I’m learning a lot about formatting a book and publishing at Create Space. I’m going to go ahead and think of this book on student work as a steppingstone—and keep moving.)

The photo is of an Aldabra giant tortoise. Very giant. The male weighs up to 550 pounds. Most of them live on islands in the Indian Ocean. They are described as “characteristically slow and cautious,” but “capable of appreciable speed.”

I continue to hope that this metaphor will bode well for my book—and that my book might soon discover its capacity for appreciable speed.

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Photo from Wikipedia, where you can also learn more about the Aldabra giant tortoise

One Year of Writing and Healing, the Book

Posted by Diane Morrow on February 9, 2014 in Blog, Book, One Year of Writing and Healing

What can I say? The book is a tortoise. One Year of Writing and Healing, a deep revision and rewriting of my other site, is not moving quickly—but it is moving—a close-to-final draft finished. I’ll post updates here periodically. Meanwhile, I have a table of contents: Months One & Two: Creating a Healing Place Month Three: Healing as Quest? Month Four: Drawing a Map Months Five & Six: Developing the Habit of Writing Month Seven: Listening for the Voice of the Body Month Eight: Making a Place for Grief Months Nine & Ten: Figuring Out the Good Part Month Eleven: Gathering Resources for the Long Haul Month Twelve: Creating a Guest House And you are welcome to visit One Year of Writing and Healing, the website, here. (I’ve taken down the old chapters I had previously posted while I work away at them.) The photo is of an Aldabra giant tortoise. Very giant. The male weighs up to 550 pounds. Most of them live on islands in the Indian Ocean. They are described as “characteristically slow and cautious,” but “capable of appreciable speed.” I’m hoping this metaphor will bode well for my book—and that it might soon discover its capacity for appreciable speed. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Photo from Wikipedia, where you can also learn more about the Aldabra giant...

The Armful by Robert Frost

Posted by Diane Morrow on August 5, 2012 in Blog, Book, Healing Poetry

This poem by Frost can be about a lot of things, I suppose. For me, this week, it seems to be about revision–and how hard it can be to hold coherent images and ideas and how sometimes you just have to put them down and rearrange them–again. Madness, perhaps–but also it seems now a necessary madness. I went back to earlier chapters of One Year of Writing and Healing to pick up some threads to carry forward–and realized that deep revision is again necessary. Chapter 2 as it stands now is just wrong–and changing that begins to change everything. Madness. For every parcel I stoop down to seize I lose some other off my arms and knees, And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns, Extremes too hard to comprehend at once. Yet nothing I should care to leave behind. With all I have to hold with hand and mind And heart, if need be, I will do my best. To keep their building balanced at my breast. I crouch down to prevent them as they fall; Then sit down in the middle of them all. I had to drop the armful in the road And try to stack them in a better load. I’m heading back to teaching tomorrow. Launching a new semester. I’ll be returning to the work of these chapters and this site (which also needs some serious tinkering) when I can. Sitting down in the middle of it all and trying to stack the pieces in a useful way. Thank you again to everyone who has offered support and help along the way. It has been a joy to have emails pop into my box as surprises and encouragement as I work away at this. __________________________________ Photo from Quiet Commotion...

Figuring Out the Good Part

Posted by Diane Morrow on July 10, 2012 in Blog, Book

It is raining this morning–a lovely reprieve after days of dry heat–and I am happy to report that I am posting Chapter 7 of One Year of Writing and Healing: Figuring Out the Good Part. I am attaching it here: Chapter 7: Figuring Out the Good Part You can also find it at Chapters along with the 6 chapters that precede it. Feedback, as always, is...

Talking to Grief by Denise Levertov

Posted by Diane Morrow on June 18, 2012 in Blog, Book, Healing Poetry

The title for the chapter, “Making a Place for Grief,” was inspired by and begins with an excerpt from “Talking to Grief” by Denise Levertov: You long for your real place to be readied before winter comes. You need your name, your collar and tag. You need the right to warn off intruders, to consider my house your own and me your person and yourself my own dog. I think there’s a kind of brilliance in this poem, that resonates with so much that I understand about imagery and the way it can help us move through the more difficult passages of our lives. This notion here of imagining grief as a dog, perhaps a much-loved dog. And then taking that next step–speaking to him or her directly. Offering to make her a real place. A home. The chapter ends then with what seems to me a kind of mirror image: this excerpt from Rumi’s poem, The Guest House, that has become, I suppose, a kind of theme song here: This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. This is a kind of goal I’m setting for myself this summer–to become, as much as I’m able, a guest house in this way. To welcome what arrives. I remember the poem sometimes when I’m sweeping my steps and my patio in the morning. I remember the way a thought or an emotion–or a wave of emotion–or a person–a snatch of conversation–the line of a poem–or a song–any one of these could come and sweep us clean–prepare us for the next thing. May your summer be a guest house in the best possible way–or perhaps a broom–preparing you for the next thing. ____________________________________________________...

Listening for the Voice of the Body

Posted by Diane Morrow on February 8, 2012 in Blog, Book

It has taken me longer than I intended to post another chapter from my book draft–but here it is! It fits in well, I think, with this whole thread of attention I’ve been exploring in the past month. Sometimes it makes sense to listen to the voices around us–all the people and characters–and birds! this morning such a racket of birds!–that inhabit our worlds. Other times the body clamors to be heard. It needs to be heard. It demands to be heard. Our own bodies like the call of birds at the window. Pay attention! Pay attention! Pay attention! So here tis. Chapter 5 of One Year of Writing and Healing: Listening for the Voice of the Body Much thanks to those who gave permission for their stories to be told within. I am deeply honored and grateful. ________________________________ See also: Book chapters 1-5 Photo from Crow...

KIVA: Extending the Healing Corridor

Posted by Diane Morrow on December 6, 2011 in Blog, Book, Healing Corridor

This month I’m posting the fourth chapter of One Year of Writing and Healing: Gathering Provisions. It has to do with figuring out what’s essential for healing—what tangible objects, what words, what stories—and then beginning, perhaps rather deliberately, to gather them. And of course writing along the way to question and reflect on the process. It seems somehow appropriate then to also post this month a piece on Kiva, an organization that allows people like you and me—people with perhaps only 25 dollars or so to spare this month—to invest that money in someone who’s going to use it well. Someone who’s going to use the money toward gathering their own essential provisions. Six months or so later the money we invest is returned and we have a choice—withdraw the money for our own provisions or simply lend it out again to someone else. It’s a beautiful thing. I first learned about Kiva when I read Half the Sky this past summer. In June I visited the Kiva site and lent twenty-five dollars to a woman in Ghana who runs a shop in her village selling electrical items. I also liked the idea that she sold donuts and that part of the money would be used to buy flour and cooking oil. Each month since, I’ve received updates, and thus far 16 of the 25 dollars has been repaid and has been deposited in my account. Writing this has reminded me to do something with my account. I decided to add 9 dollars to the 16 and lend to a single mother in Mexico who has three young children and operates a food stall. The 25 dollars will go toward allowing her to increase her inventory of ingredients—vegetables and cheese and tortillas and such. Interestingly, I learned over Thanksgiving break that my daughter, who’s in college, had also heard about this organization through one of her classes—a course in Trans-National Feminism that’s part of her Women and Gender Studies minor—and she’s been meaning to invest. I decided I can help the process along by getting her and my son twenty-five dollar gift cards for Christmas so they can start their own accounts. I’ve done the Heifer gifts before—where you can give animals to families in need around the world—but I’m feeling now like Kiva is a better investment. I’m basing this on the range of services that the money can be lent for and also on the rating given Kiva by Charity Navigator, a site which rates charities on a number of different factors. Interested in learning more? Here’s a very short video that explains the Kiva process. How Kiva Works from Kiva on Vimeo. Here’s a link to Kiva where it’s easy to navigate to buying a gift card and/or browsing potential borrowers and/or opening an account. My fourth chapter of One Year of Writing and Healing, Gathering Provisions, can be found here. Charity Navigator can be found here. An article about Half the Sky can be found here. Also, if you’re interested in learning more about this notion of small loans or microfinance in general Kiva has a great page here which includes a longer video explaining the process of microfinance. The photo above is from the Kiva site. The group of women is Las Gaviotas (The...

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