OBSERVATIONS #20 – 12.31.24

Change is Coming – Details To Be Announced To the January-June, 2025 Racine Writer-in-Residence Grantee #18 – Congratulations! Best Wishes to our new WIR program coordinator! Formal announcements will be made shortly. In the meantime, Thank You, Nick Ramsey/Art Root coordinator, 2017-2024, for your outstanding leadership and diligence in organizing the program. Nick’s hands on…

OBSERVATIONS #19 – 12.31.24

EN PLEIN AIRThe humid wind, sandy beaches, blinding light, hidden niches,Safeguards the children,Suspended between parched earth, blue sky, clear water, As if etched in steel, not real, tell time. Trace your way along the path, Through scrub, lost at the edge,Reminiscent of ancient mounds, Dissonance turned melodic,Just beyond, Long shadows of man and trees intersect,Leafy…

OBSERVATIONS #18 – 12.24.24

I Must Do To Be I must do to be, Things move, change waits, Words interrupt, hands interpret, Bodies heal, thoughts roam. Before you, after me, Sands drift to form dunes and valleys, Swirling shapes shift with times motion, And like water, are not silent. Obedient children must speak, They play guard over brown uneven…

OBSERVATIONS #16 – 11.23.24

The sunlight is loud, It’s noise breaks the silence, Like a comforting blanket, Surrounds me, you, us, With both narrow and broad streams of brilliant sounds, Soon turn into murmurous shadows, At once dark and transparent, Casting familiar silhouettes, Meant to share secrets. Sharp lines separate sunlight from it’s absence, In my space, geometry’s triangular…

OBSERVATION #11-10.26.24

My Musings on Nobody’s Perfect with Anecdotes by B, C, J, L, M,Like butterflies, words escaped the cocoon of the story teller’s memory,Like fairy tales, transformed and captured under my pen. mp Meet M – Growing up in a family with three brothers, all went to the same religious school. Teacher identified M as their…

OBSERVATIONS #10 – 10.19.24

About the Arts and Humanities Happy National Arts and Humanities month! The White House issued its yearly proclaim that states: “The arts and humanities bring people together and show us that we have more in common than we have differences – helping us see each other, understand one another, and unite in common cause. Our…

Prayer and offerings 

Family gathering for the living and deceased Table spread with savory foods, rich bread, and sweets A voided space between realms filled with laughter  Candles lit for prayer, protection, and to guide our loved ones along the way  Water poured into fancy glasses for libations and hydration  Music playing to raise the frequency of the…

Finishing the Hat

by Jessie Lynn McMains Since Stephen Sondheim died, I’ve had “Finishing the Hat” stuck in my head. “Finishing the Hat” is a song from Sondheim’s 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George, and in some ways it is the consummate Sondheim song; one of the finest examples of the way he blended music and…

tell me all of your secrets

by Jessie Lynn McMains 1 Many people have told me I’m bold, in my writing. That I’m brave to put my life on the page, on the screen, click print, hit ‘publish,’ and not care who might read it or what they might think of me afterwards. Many people have told me I seem to…