American Mestiza

'Til Next Time #NatPoMo!

I totally forgot yesterday was National Poem in Your Pocket Day. I feel remiss as a poet that I somehow missed the industry-sanctioned ac...

¡Sí Se Puede! In Honor of Día de César Chávez

Today (if you’re on the west coast, yesterday on the east) was César Chávez’s birthday, known in the western and southwestern parts of th...

Day 28! Out of 30.

Today marks the 28th day of the Tupelo Press 30/30 poetry challenge fundraiser that I have been participating in. Wow. I kinda can’t even...

Day 22 of 30 - March Poetry Update!

I seriously cannot believe the month is almost over! It's gone by *so* fast and I've done SO MUCH. I took a trip to sunny Los Angeles whe...

Poetry Needs You (I need you)

That sounds dramatic, but once, in a two-week visiting writer workshop at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Li-Young Lee (who might jus...

Honoring "A Poet of Memory": On the Death of Philip Levine

I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary, the only home – Philip Levine I never cry when famou...

Holiday Cards! Not Just for Your Grandma Anymore . . .

I love sending Christmas cards. Of course, none of them say “Christmas”* on them (because I am a lieutenant in the insidious liberal war ...

Turducken, Black Friday, and Other Abhorrent Things Americans Attach to A Rather Abhorrent Holiday:

For the record, I don’t actually have anything against turducken. Or deep fried turkey. I think as red-blooded, vote-participating, freed...

Happy Halloween Everybody! A Little Musing on The Amazingness of The Nightmare Before Christmas

Ten days ago I posted about some of my favorite animated Halloween-related movies, and at the end I explained why Tim Burton’s The Nightm...

Because it's October and All I Want to Do is Watch Movies Under a Blanket with Tea and Pumpkin-shape

October is most definitely my favorite month. No, it's not my birth month, it's Halloween month. It is the month of black cats, witch hat...

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