2023-08-17 18:38
The weather, for instance: it’s everything lovely at once, then the opposite. I know yet again after looking at the forecast for highs in the 100s after several days of highs in the 80… Read More
Blog Directory > Arts & Entertainment Blogs > Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg arts-and-entertainment Blog >
Caryn Mirriam-goldberg Blog
CarynMirriamGoldberg.wordpress.com
Tags:
everyday magic
prairie everyday magic
eureka springs arkansas
road everyday
prairie everyday
arkansas everyday magic
loud fireworks
understanding
learned
death everyday magic
reflections on writing, the land and sky by the poet laureate of kansas, author of ten books, and founder of transformative language arts at goddard college.
2023-08-06 20:32
When did I become a student of anxiety? It’s hard to remember because I’ve been stalked by it for as long as I can remember, but thankfully, in the last decade, I’ve been b… Read More
2023-07-27 16:33
I start out walking through cicadas, thousands, millions, maybe billions of them — this is Arkansas so it’s hard to know — a tunnel of sound that roars so completely I&rsqu&hell…Read More
2023-07-15 18:50
Just before Kris told me at lunch she couldn’t wait for a good thunderstorm, Denise texted Judy and me, “On the way to the hospital. Not good,” about her husband, Tom, in t… Read More
2023-07-04 04:06
Shortly after dinner fireworks tonight, an explosion went off with such power that our entire house shook. We all jumped, Ken, me, and our terrified dog, Moxie. It’s been a rough year… Read More
2023-06-26 19:56
The temps soared to the high 90s, the sun was bright, and Ken and I took to the open road on Saturday for me to give a Humanities Kansas presentation on the Holocaust and Polish resistance… Read More
2023-06-07 16:49
For a week each year, the hackberry butterflies float, soar, and flutter in such number that we have to keep our mouths closed when walking from house to car. Known as the hackberry emperor… Read More
2023-05-27 15:16
This year on Memorial Day, my 33-year-old son asked all of our family local to meet at the cemetery to decorate the graves, speak to our dead beloveds, and tell stories about them. As someon… Read More
2023-05-09 20:09
On Sunday, April 30, Ken called me from the Prairie Park Prairie, where he goes weekly to get photos for his Kaw Valley Almanac. He loves this prairie he’s befriended and visited regul… Read More
2023-04-19 15:16
As soon as we started driving west from Kansas City International Airport Monday, I fell in love again with late afternoon light play and the light bright green of high spring punctuated by… Read More
2023-04-05 01:05
“Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter,” the Beatles sang, and while my winter wasn’t so lonely, it felt unduly long and cold this year. But here it is… Read More
2023-03-12 16:44
We managed to avoid getting Covid for almost three years, to the point that when that screaming hot pink line appeared on the test strip one late night, my first thought was that the test mu… Read More
2023-02-21 17:00
A few days ago I went to my seventh and perhaps my last Springsteen concert, which was (as always) a tour de force love child of sacred pilgrimage and family reunion. Just seeing Bruce with… Read More
2023-02-17 18:37
This is the week of the Bruces for me — I saw Bruce Cockburn in concert Thurs. night, and Sat. night, I’m off to see Bruce Springsteen for the umpteenth time. Today as I listened… Read More
2023-01-21 18:24
I was fifteen years ago and miserable when I first went to a youth group Havdalah service one winter evening. I was living with my very difficult father in a big house, so much bigger now th… Read More
2023-01-08 23:13
Juxtapositions — putting like with non-like — add zip, surprise, sometimes anxiety, and often uncertainty to our lives. They’re also at the heart of what makes poetry poetr… Read More
2022-12-23 00:53
In the middle of the longest night of the year, my anxiety search dogs kept jarring me awake, running amok while looking for something to chew on. Tiny and medium-sized annoyances, worries… Read More
2022-12-04 21:24
“I’m not going to leave a message,” my sister Lauren said when she left a message Friday. I was standing in the corner of an ebullient restaurant where Ken and I were havin… Read More
2022-11-26 23:40
It’s almost twilight, Moxie dog is sleeping in the corner, my ears are buzzing with low-hum tinnitus, and I’m about to make dinner. Looking into my house and glancing out the win… Read More
2022-11-12 17:23
Time continually befuddles me, so much so that my last book of poetry was called How Time Moves, and I’m still deep in the muck of figuring out what time is and how it keeps slipping t… Read More
2022-10-31 16:05
I’ve stopped tuning into most of what we call news until after the midterms. It isn’t because I don’t care, quite the contrary, but because I keep learning that the realer… Read More
2022-10-07 17:53
In one of my favorite movies, About Time, the main character, who can time travel, hatches a great plan: he’ll live each day with all its waking up exhausted, rushing through big halls… Read More
2022-09-18 05:07
All week, I’ve been writing on the porch of one of the houses at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. This is my happy place where I come regularly to… Read More
2022-09-07 14:03
Walking to the edge of the deck this early morning to take this photo of the fog burning off the brome field and the prairie, I felt great tenderness for the hard-won: all that comes to us a… Read More
2022-08-23 14:06
In mid-July, everything fell apart from air-conditioners to phones to cars and more. A growing river of money and time surged out to sea. I pulled out the credit card, tried to get some slee… Read More
2022-08-06 16:52
I left because it was making me sick, the “it” being the job I had loved fiercely and believed I would give my heart and time to until I was well past retirement age. It was one… Read More
2022-07-20 15:43
Yesterday my phone blew a microchip hissy fit and lost it ability to dial out or answer calls a few hours before the air-conditioning in the living room — a big-ass window unit that co… Read More
2022-07-10 15:50
Dear Readers, For last month, I’ve been on an archeological colonoscopy into my past as I sorted through boxes and big plastic vats of papers and keepsakes. I was spurred into motion a… Read More
2022-06-27 18:28
It’s been a week of boobs and bravery on the move (and I don’t mean the supreme court, which I have other names for rather than slang for an often beloved part of our bodies), al… Read More
2022-06-12 22:14
Weather. That was the theme of the 2022 Symphony in the Flint Hills, and because of all my weather poetry, especially my poem “Being Made of Weather” included in this year’… Read More
2022-06-11 15:38
Suddenly, I’m on the road a lot after the time-bending months of the pandemic. I went to Wichita for a night to visit with an old friend I hadn’t seen since B.C. (Before Covid)… Read More
2022-05-17 00:17
Yesterday began with running outside in our pajamas to cut irises as fast as possible while 70 mph winds and a giant thunderstorm descended. The day ended with a full lunar eclipse’s r… Read More
2022-05-13 21:16
Going from winter (otherwise known as much of April) to summer (disguised as May this year) has plummeted many of us in Kansas into the high humidity of late summer, chiggers and thunderstor… Read More
2022-04-30 16:22
Cancer is often measured in anniversaries and fruit. We survivors often report in with our years out from the cancer after our initial diagnosis, yet in diagnostic land, we speak of tumors a… Read More
2022-04-19 14:17
Sometimes I feel like I’m at a sudden still point between waves of motion and change. Like right now as I sit in a floral chair in my living room, staring out at the just-cleaned kitch… Read More
2022-03-31 03:04
“Vaughn keeps talking about the house down the road,” Julie, his wife, told me just a few days before he died. I listened on the other end of the phone, looking out the window fr… Read More
2022-03-13 17:11
It all changed March 13, 2020 for many of us in this country. That Friday the 13th was auspicious in ways people like me didn’t see coming. The pandemic had reached a threshold, and on… Read More
2022-03-07 17:03
An hour ago, a mourning dove crashed so hard against our living room window that Ken and I both jumped. The dove attacked his reflection so vehemently, it was hard to believe he survived. Fo… Read More
2022-02-25 00:19
Yesterday, I was surprised by how big he was, and how, from a distance, he looked sleek and strong. But then he came closer, making circles around our house to keep arriving at the compost b… Read More
2022-02-13 17:07
“Maybe since January lasted for seven and a half years, February will be easy,” I said to my friend Kris. She was doubtful since February, for us and many others we know, tends t… Read More
2022-01-29 16:49
I was lucky: I found a place that made a satisfying click when I set foot in it, and I knew. It was April 30, 1982, I was living in Kansas City, MO at the time, and I had never been to Lawre… Read More
2022-01-20 19:09
At Checkers, our big locally-owned grocery store the other day, the check-out lines snaked across the frozen food section with six or so of us in each line, spread apart because of the pande… Read More
2022-01-08 17:24
This is a story of what can happen when you ask the birds to talk to the deer as well as how conversations in our minds can seem like they really occurred. It also has something to do with h… Read More
2021-12-29 22:35
In the last week, the temperatures have risen well over 70 degrees, what we expect in April and not in late December, but my dubious joy and relief from those balmy days has crashed into the… Read More
2021-12-18 17:40
For years, they arrived regularly, two or three batches every month or so that always included one for me, one for Ken, and occasionally one for our kids. Mike Watoma’s postcards, each… Read More
2021-12-09 16:02
This is a cross-post I wrote for Your Right Livelihood (scroll down for more info.). With so many people I know grappling with the same issue, I thought I’d share it here. I love my wo… Read More
2021-11-24 19:53
There’s something both stark and magical about the time right before the holiday season opens wide and emcompasses us in a whole lot of baking, cooking, driving to the airport to pick… Read More
2021-11-02 14:26
It’s not lost on me that it’s the Day of the Dead, when we remember and honor our departed beloveds (between Oct. 31-Nov. 2 this year). The veil is thinner during this time betwe… Read More
2021-10-26 14:40
Lying in bed this morning between layers of flannel with a purring kitty under the covers with me, I dreamed in and out of the call of a barred owl, seemingly on the other side of the window… Read More
2021-10-07 00:59
Question: How many MRIs does it take a claustrophobe to relax? Answer: When Brandon, the wonderful (re: tolerant) MRI tech asked I told him I’ve lost count. Nothing like tunnelling, sl… Read More
2021-10-04 15:53
Beyond the lower temperatures and chigger count, there’s something else that truly distinguishes this time of year: the changing of the light. The blues get bluer, the pinks and orange… Read More
2021-09-11 15:44
Twenty years ago it happened. Ten years ago I wrote this post. So much of it is still true, and there’s so much more to say about the heartbreaking state of polarity, divisiveness, and… Read More
2021-09-07 22:00
This morning, I gave a short talk at the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation’s Rosh Hashana service on Shafarot, a calling to live with greater awareness and purpose, to examine wha… Read More
2021-08-31 19:44
When we went to the Pacific Northwest earlier this month, we had a mission: behold as many big-ass trees as possible. Thanks to our friends Carl and Sara obliging or humoring us, that’… Read More
2021-08-16 01:41
Kelley Hunt and my 16th annual six-day Brave Voice, Sept. 19-24 in Council Grove, Kansas. We have strong Covid protocols in place to keep everyone protected (all participants must show proof… Read More
2021-08-16 01:10
Kansas roses struggle once summer gets its heat on, but I have found a land where everything is coming up roses: the Pacific Northwest. We were there for Aunt Wilma’s memorial and the… Read More
2021-07-29 16:19
Let’s talk Simone Biles But first, let’s talk about two gymnasts we don’t know the names of: Elena Mukhina and Julissa Gomez Elena Mukhina, a 20-year-old Soviet gymnast, br… Read More
2021-07-26 22:24
Saturday I got to watch historic justice: Jarek Piekalkiewicz finally being presented with the Cross of the Brave, known as Krzyz Walecznych in Poland, for his immense courage and heart in f… Read More
2021-07-18 21:21
For me, it’s always been the trees and sky, sun wavering on the surface of water, wind making its invisible presence known through the curving of prairie grass, the darkening night sky… Read More
2021-07-08 19:00
Martin Swinger, a virtuoso singer and songwriter, died suddenly in early July, leaving behind his husband (and partner of 35 years) Brian and many broken hearts in his Asbury Park, N.J. home… Read More
2021-06-25 17:49
All my life, I heard the old folk song “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” as “Go Tell Aunt Rhoda,” and since I had an Aunt Rhoda, this seemed very fortuitous indeed. Sitting on my… Read More
2021-05-30 16:14
Sunday evening, we sat on our back deck around an outdoor table and a wedding gift from Aunt Wilma and Uncle Ron 36-plus years ago, a wonky folding table. It was the first in-person gatherin… Read More
2021-05-21 01:30
We are living in a world of rain lately, and according to the weather forecast, this is life as we know it into the foreseeable process. It started a week or maybe months ago, yet it’s… Read More
2021-05-04 22:21
When I walked into the Merc Co-op today, I spied Ardys. After talking a little through our masks, she leaned in to bump elbows. “You vaccinated?” I asked. She was, so we flung ou… Read More
2021-04-23 16:50
In the Star Trek shows and films, someone can yell out, with grave urgency or casual cheer, “Scotty, beam me up” then off they go. But when they land back in the ship after escap… Read More
2021-04-08 14:59
As more of us absorb the wizardry of the vaccine, where we end up might well be up to the whims of an enchanted sorting hat, just like in the Harry Potter books. Although it’s not a ch… Read More
2021-03-29 19:15
You just showed up one winter day, nose to nose with our labmatian (lab-dalmatian) Mariah, only the glass of the screen door between you. You were emaciated, sick, and shivering, and we were… Read More
2021-03-20 16:48
“I’m here for my monogram,” a silver-haired woman told the receptionist. “Yes, your mammogram,” the receptionist answered without missing a beat. Obviously, she… Read More
2021-03-16 18:39
“The world will never be the same,” Ken told me right after Goody Garfield’s burial service. “We were witness to one of a kind, and that’s true of everyone, but… Read More
2021-03-11 16:19
“This is probably the last time we’ll be able to do this,” we nervously joked with each other a year ago. We were friends, gathered at Haskell Indian Nations University to… Read More
2021-03-05 15:55
Last night, I found that my tinnitus buzzes and hums in the key of G. How did I find this? By singing in key with the tinnitus while pressing piano keys. Making music out of misfortune is so… Read More
2021-02-13 19:20
When the temperature gets near or below zero, survival comes into sharper focus for us all, but so do birds and their survival without the benefit of fleece and indoor nesting. So we feed th… Read More
2021-02-07 17:59
Shay the dog is an elderly gentleman with a lot of problems that could be careening him to the brink of the rainbow bridge soon. He has kidney issues and serious-bad arthritis. We recently d… Read More
2021-01-29 17:06
On the phone with my cousin Richard last night, we talked about how life gives you materials you don’t often sign up for, then you have to figure out what to do with them. “A rab… Read More
2021-01-24 16:25
For many of us, it’s been a Wednesday onward of seemingly infinite relief as we’ve watched a new president and glass-ceiling-breaking vice president sworn in and a swirl of execu… Read More
2021-01-12 18:22
Since the riots of hatred last Wednesday, it’s hard to get my bearings. Like most of the people I know, the word “unbelievable!” peppers many conversations which are often… Read More
2020-12-31 22:43
A friend told me that during her Christmas Zoom with family scattered far and wide, she realized how lucky they were: no one had Covid, lost their life or their job, and all had warm homes w… Read More
2020-12-20 17:56
I am thinking of two realities: that over 300,000 people in this country have died from COVID-19 and that we’re on the cusp of the winter solstice, when the shortening days stop in the… Read More
2020-12-13 23:31
A lot of us need more light now or as soon as possible. With the pandemic numbers rising and so many of us connected to people sick or struggling to survive or already gone, it’s a dee… Read More
2020-11-23 18:29
Like most of us living in the ever-expansive pandemic lands, I’m looking toward a pocket-size gathering of just our household and our sister-in-law (part of our posse and pod) with the… Read More
2020-11-06 19:51
Shay and I sit on the porch, exhaling. It has been a week, a year, and a close-to-four year thing. There’s still so much wrong with our country, Covid cases are rising daily to proport… Read More
2020-10-20 20:34
Suddenly, I’m searching for sweaters, cursing the lack of mittens with me for a walk, and shiver-driving around town for the interminable stretch until the car heater kicks in. But win… Read More
2020-10-09 16:52
Gaslighting. What a useful word that, when I first heard it, snapped a whole lot of abuse and shaming I suffered into a new and true reality. That’s because gaslighting is manipulating… Read More
2020-10-07 14:40
Yesterday, we rushed down the driveway to pick up my car from one repair shop to take it to another. But Moxie-dog chased us down the drive, Ken got repeated phone calls interrupting us maki… Read More
2020-09-26 21:16
The Days of Awe — the 10 days between Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), it’s time to clean up our act. We reflect on our thoughts and deeds, words… Read More
2020-09-05 23:18
As the black-eyed susans and sunflowers eking out their blossoms in the dry heat of summer’s end, I’ve been singing the line, “It’s time for a few small repairs,&rdqu&hell…Read More
2020-08-23 19:11
A year ago, driving a mountain cabin to Denver to see old friends, we had no idea. It just seemed that life would go on like this with annual vacations 500 or more miles from home, easy fora… Read More
2020-08-15 17:36
I just returned from writing poetry on the porch at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow to write poetry on the porch of our place. Being outside continually jolts me out of my inside-m… Read More
2020-08-01 22:07
Sometime in my early teens, I discovered Carole King’s Rhymes and Reasons, and like I had done with Joni Mitchell’s Blue (was there ever a more perfect album?”), I listened… Read More
2020-07-18 19:23
The fire swamp in The Princess Bride has at least three known dangers, but at first Westley (played by Carey Elwes) mistakenly believes there are only two: the flame spurts and lightning san… Read More
2020-06-26 20:37
I never felt like much of a vigilante before, but lately, I can’t help myself. After shopping at our very safe food co-op where everyone was wearing masks except for one young family… Read More
2020-06-17 18:51
A year ago, I was positively radioactive. On June 14, I had surgery to insert a tiny gold disk of radioactive pellets in my right eye, and on June 19, I had surgery to have it removed. That… Read More
2020-06-02 01:23
I thought a global pandemic was enough: enough pain, suffering, fear, restriction, uncertainty, and dread. Turns out I was wrong. We now have violent riots (most of which, from all I’m… Read More
2020-05-24 21:13
As I watch the Pendleton’s peonies I just bought rush from tight little balls to full-throttle fireworks of blossoms, I keep thinking of three impossible things: the massive tornado th… Read More
2020-05-15 20:24
The irises are falling all over themselves with the weight of their beauty. It’s banner year where they’ve gone beyond simply showing off to flinging their gorgeousness at us wit… Read More
2020-04-30 00:12
A year ago today, pacing an empty parking lot, I cried so hard on the phone with my friend Kelley that it was hard to get the words out: “I have cancer. In my eye. I’m so scared… Read More
2020-04-19 22:52
Dear You, Yes, I hear you knocking on my door at all hours of the day and especially night, calling me out of my sleep because you’re not getting enough of your own. You want to know w… Read More
If God Didn’t Want Us To Pray At Home, She Wouldn’t Have Invented Zoom: Everyday Magic, Day 1003
2020-04-11 16:31
Or Facebook Live. Or Youtube. Or any number of places to help us worship together while keeping physically apart and spiritually close. A church in Lawrence is doing by having people drive t… Read More
2020-04-08 18:46
The Night John Prine Died The pink full moon rose over the pandemic singing through the tree, “Hello in there. Hello.” We listened, all children grown old, but always look… Read More
2020-03-31 18:12
Amazingly enough, we are arrived at the last day of March, a month that has lasted at least 1,283 days in fear, panic, and dread years. But here we are, and as April — what T.S. once c… Read More
Subscribe to Caryn Mirriam-goldberg
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!