Okay, writers, artists, educators, poets, HUMANS… Hear this:
Tiferet Journal hopes to foster peace through literature and art.
There is nothing better. Period. Read. Write. Learn.
Of Broken Hearts…a Moment of reality in the doctor’s office and more…
I don’t know why more people don’t die of broken hearts.
I was in a doctor’s office today and heard an infant crying. An INFANT. I looked at my doctor and asked, Do you hear that? At first, he kept his professional persona, as I know he needed to do, and then he said, I thought I could be a pediatrician until my wife and I had children…I could not…could not…
A moment of connection with the medical provider and me—neither of us wanted to hear an infant crying in a medical provider’s office….
I could not tell a parent, he started to say.
And I knew what he meant.
I don’t need to see this doctor for a year or so, so I was a safe patient to be real with… but we both looked at each other and wondered–how do people cope?
All the news about children and parents being separated at the border. How do people survive?
I worked with someone whose infant was born with a stomach tumor as large as the infant himself…and his insurance company denied his claim as a PRE-EXISTING condition.
How does one survive this heart-breaking, life-breaking fact, that a BABY would be denied coverage? That this child was born with a life-threatening disease?
I have often wondered how anyone survives a war; I doubt I could, as I am very sensitive and I do not make quick decisions. I ponder, ponder, fret and consider, while the world has moved on.
In any case, I found an article from the American Heart Association about Broken Heart Syndrome.
This doesn’t answer the question of HOW do people survive? I don’t know. I really don’t know… how people survive war, catastrophes, etc. I admire anyone who does.
And I think we REALLY need to be kind to others, since we don’t know what people are trying to deal with.
Be nice. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Life isn’t easy at times; life can be so complicated.
But I think most people want to survive, protect those they love, and have a purpose in life.
With all of this in common, can we find a way to get along?
I hope so.
Thanks for reading, and wishing you peace and empathy.
Laura Lee
PS I wonder how many people *do* die of broken hearts, but it is called something else? BE NICE. Try to understand others. Try to extend compassion.
Link to Two Published Poems at Tuck Magazine
I am pleased to have had two poems published here, in Tuck Magazine.
I am particularly happy to be published here since Tuck Magazine tries to bring social justice issues to light, while helping its writers publish. Perhaps you want to get a more global look at issues; Tuck Magazine does that.
Where have you been submitting? How is writing and publishing going for you?
Thanks for reading!
Laura Lee
Too Much Damn Privatization of Public Schools – Using Public Money to Make a Public Good Profitable for a Few
Re-blogged with permission of the author/ educator at this site:
Caffeinated Rage
Educators–this is important information. We are fighting for the very existence of public education.
Remember Michelle Rhee’s visit to North Carolina last year for a “closed-door” meeting (February 7th ,2017) with lawmakers brokered by an educational lobbying body of business leaders called BEST NC (coupled with the NC GOP’s invitation to Betsy DeVos who had just been confirmed as Trump’s secretary of education)?
It was another ominous omen of what has been and will continue to be attempted in North Carolina – the further privatization of public education in North Carolina.
That meeting with Rhee that was passed off as a session with leaders where candid questions could be asked and ideas exchanged on how to improve public education seemed to be void of the very people who know education the best – public school educators. The media did have a brief chance to meet and greet with Ms. Rhee and George Parker in a manicured and measured way, but what happened behind…
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Writers: a nice feature of submittable.com
Writers! Perhaps you knew about this great feature of Submittable, but I did not until today. Submittable.com is a site where some publishers collect submissions to journals and contests, reply to the writers, accept submissions, reject submissions. It’s a way to read submissions “blindly,” without seeing an author’s name.
I like using Submittable, since it also helps me keep track of what piece of writing I’ve submitted where.
What I just discovered, however, is a great find: the “discover” section of the website. There I found many journals listing their requirements, deadlines, etc. All in one place.
I also found sites I now like to read from (is that the term…read from? Read there?)
So, writers, if you haven’t discovered the DISCOVER feature of Submittable yet, here you go: Discover Opportunities Submittable. If you don’t have an account there yet, you will need to create a free account.
What are some useful writing tools you have discovered?
Thanks for reading!
Laura Lee
Coffin Bell Journal, a mini-review
Another interesting site. This is not my genre, dark literature, but I realize many of my writings contain very dark elements–just not supernatural. With some editing, they could fit the genre. In any case, here is a journal that has an interesting premise. From 
their website: Coffin Bell
Coffin Bell is a new quarterly online journal of dark literature seeking poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and creative nonfiction exploring dark themes. When we say “dark themes,” we don’t necessarily mean traditional horror. Send us your waking nightmares, dark CNF, dystopian flash, cursed verse. Surprise us. Make us think in a new way. Give us a new fear. Make our skin crawl.
If you write flash fiction or dark verse, read here and consider submitting. The site is attractive, the care given to writers evident in their bios. What an interesting group of writers published there already, from lawyers to ghost writers.
Yesterday I changed the speaker of a poem from human to animal, something I’ve not done before. Have you considered writing outside of your genre? If so, what was your experience?
Thanks for reading!
Belied/rough draft
Parking here to edit and revise
Belied
The woods, late spring
pond at sunsets
bat-skimmed surface
white tail pulled down
new leaves. The hawk flew low
as well.
Over the walking path
my shadow squat and low
No wings
no hooves, no wild thing.
Even the blue jay flew low
that night, while grasshoppers
jumped quickly across the path
my short shadowed sadness and dread
belied the flood of gold.
Of Coyotes, Babies, Macduff, and Strangers. (Five poems Submitted Tonight)
I submitted five persona poems to a favorite journal tonight, written in the voices of five distinct others: a coyote, a baby, Macduff from Macbeth, Simon from Lord of the Flies, and two strangers. It was fun to find and edit the poems, as well as working on a few others I just could not include at this time.
I love writing persona poems; I am both a a daughter of storytellers and a current poet, and persona poems combine poetry and stories. It’s tricky for me to write in a persona not female, not human, not me at all, but I love to try doing this.
Now I wait many months to find out if any of these poems will be published. In the meantime, I know I will be writing more persona poems, since I am taking a writing class this summer.
What’s the most interesting voice you have written in?
Have to love a “fiercely debated” punctuation mark, the Oxford Comma
The informative and often fun site, ThoughCo.com published an article about the Oxford of serial comma here: ThoughtCo.com Article on the Oxford Comma .
This comma is known as the Oxford Comma, the Harvard Comma, and more commonly, the serial comma.
But what is this hot topic punctuation mark? As the author Richard Nordquist writes,
The Oxford comma is the comma that precedes the conjunction before the final item in a list of three or more items:
- This song was composed by Moe, Larry, and Curly.
- This website is devoted to Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe, and Curly Joe.
- This book is dedicated to my roommates, Beyoncé, and God.
I just love those examples!
ThoughtCo.com believes the serial comma should be used unless the style manual a writer is using advises against it.
I have to love a “fiercely debated” punctuation mark! What do you think? Where do you stand on this hot topic?
Laura Lee
Submitted Four Poems–I’ll (im) patiently wait
Since poetry is a labor of love, I will patiently wait to hear…. in six months to a yea
r. Keep smiling. Keep track of where I have sent out work and when. If by some magical turn of events any of the works are accepted elsewhere, I’ll then know to withdraw them. (Yes, I checked on simultaneous submissions.) Poetry editors seem to be much better about this than they were many years ago.
Laura Lee 