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What if I told you that all your efforts amounted to no more than a mere breath? And not even to a deep and life-giving breath, but only the weak vapor of an exhale? Hevel – breath. It’s the Hebrew word the King James Bible translates as “vanity.” More recently, Robert Alter has translated it as “mere breath,” like... Continue Reading →
In "Quietness" the Sufi mystic poet Rumi speaks of taking an axe to one's prison wall and walking out "like someone suddenly born into color" (trans. by Coleman Barks). It's left me thinking of how many prisons humans build - both literal and metaphorical - and how often they do not serve the purposes of... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTE2llSOjtI There are many reasons we have difficulty talking about mental illness. Those silences have shaped my new novel, Suddenly Color: A Sacred Grounds Novel Book 2.
If you were to imagine God as a character in a story, what would God be like? Like a human? More like some other kind of creature? What kind of personality would this character have? (Don’t go with your first thought. Keep brainstorming and try an idea that’s four or five ideas down the list.)... Continue Reading →
Do you resist doing things badly? I do. I strongly dislike the idea of producing low-quality work. (Can you tell I’m a recovering perfectionist?) I take all sorts of steps to avoid creating anything I might consider even remotely inaccurate, unaesthetic, tedious, or of an otherwise unhelpful quality. This approach, of course, can introduce its... Continue Reading →
Are there memories whose goodness has surprised you? Though not a poet, I took a workshop earlier this year which involved writing a poem that explored the divine through joy. Inspired by the vividness of Li-Young Lee’s sense-awakening poem “From Blossoms”, I tried writing about a kind of remembering moment that has taken me by surprise,... Continue Reading →
Callie J. Smith 