WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

gratitude

December 10, 2007

Today’s Gratitude

Today I am grateful to the anonymous neighbor who shoveled snow away from my garden gate. Whoever this was also (optimistically) shoveled a clear spot next to my car, and a path to the bird and squirrel feeders. The sparrows and squirrels thank you, too. That’s what she’s saying up there: Thank you! I’m… Continue reading

Personal

gratitude, Holidailies, photo, photograph, squirrel
November 22, 2007

Solitude, The Bad Smell, & Trying to Feel Thankful

Solitude, from the odd neighbor [click for larger image] It’s Thanksgiving. I’m alone. It would be a day like any other, except it’s this day; this day to celebrate attachments, family, friends, community. Any other day, I am grateful for solitude; this wide emptiness I need for writing. Not all writers need this; some seem… Continue reading

Personal

bad smell, gratitude, illness, illustration, olfactory hallucination, solitude, Thanksgiving, the odd neighbor
July 20, 2004

Gratitude I

INSPIRATION My difficulties last week, and Joe‘s quick response, reminded me that I owe a big thank you to the folks who have shown me the weblogging way. These bloggers have all directly influenced Watermark, by showing me what is possible: First, Erin ( a favorite poet), who showed me that a more-than-poetry blog can… Continue reading

About This Site, Blogging, Soul Food

Blogging, gratitude, poetry

Ancestral (Artificial )Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. For me, writing is how I think, and I prefer to do it myself. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

I have changed this from Artificial to Ancestral, after Abi Awomosu @ Substack. This medium was made with human history, human thought. All of it, bright and dark. It is ancestral.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

gratitude

Today’s Gratitude

Solitude, The Bad Smell, & Trying to Feel Thankful

Gratitude I