LLBarkat

I can feel my heart beating too fast. My breath feels shallow. My body, jittery. It's not caffeine. There's no threat here in the kitchen. It's nothing at all. Still, the next phone call I take, I walk with it. There's something about walking that drains the barely-perceptible unease that pervades my body. It's as if with each step something falls away. I miss this outer movement that creates inner space. After my walk, after my call, I sit and just think. What do I really need? Swaths of... Read Full Story

"It’s a beautiful book, easily my favorite book on writing since Bird by Bird ..." continue reading at Kimberlee Conway Ireton's Read Full Story

A sense of control, plus... A sense of progress, plus... Connectedness, plus... Meaning... Equals: happiness. Could it be that simple? Last night it was. The girls and I decided (control) to watch Merlin together. They've been wanting me to see all the episodes. It's like our little secret. A life of story we are building together (meaning). We pulled the curtains closed. Shut out the night (progress). We pulled each other close on the couch, where my Littlest leaned into me (connectedness... Read Full Story

I got lost this weekend. In Pinterest. Hadn't been interested, until my friend Cheryl Smith said it's the fastest growing social network on the Web right now. Really? Had to see what the fuss was about. And now I know. Color, color, and more color. What's not to love? It sparked so many ideas I could barely keep up with them. So I had to make an office. Or something like that. Do you Pinterest? If so, let me know what's on, in and around your Boards. Tell me where to follow you. And we can... Read Full Story

I have become enamored with candy. Funny, because I am not a candy-eater. But the colors, the colors have really taken me. So of course now I am looking at everything through candy-colored glasses. And today, when I needed to buy new notebooks, I settled on these... candies. Read Full Story

I open the Eighth Day Books blog to find this... "An instinctual poet, Barkat revels in the physical reality of words." Eighth Day is an amazing bookstore in the Midwest. It supplies the Calvin Festival and The Glen Workshop. How sweet to be mentioned (and stocked on their virtual shelves). What strikes me now is the odd tension of the phrase 'physical reality of words.' So suggestive. This week, someone asked me what makes anyone want to return to a poem, read it twice. The same question... Read Full Story

Today I loved blue beads, in this post. Later, I opened my mailbox and received a most precious gift from Karen Eck. She illustrated my poetry book InsideOut and surprise-gifted it to me, filled with her beautiful art. On one of the pages... blue pearls... Read Full Story

It's just another day on the trail. Me, biding my time, while my girl rides the auburn stallion around the ring. I go off, pick my way around horse droppings, to get some time in the open. I've been here so many times now, and I wonder why I bother to bring my camera yet again. The season is the same. The same grey twigs raise their dryness towards the sky. There are the wineberry canes, still red and leaning. Same indigo berries, a little more shriveled by winter's moisture-absent air. My... Read Full Story

It has always been this way for me. The simplest things speak. Last night, tidying up the living room, I saw this Off button my littlest daughter made, for one of her animation projects. Standing by the coffee table, I stopped moving and stared. Struck, yes, that's how I felt. You'd think I had been visited by an angel. But I was not afraid. Just very still. And the simple red Off button has been speaking to me ever since. Read Full Story

My youngest daughter is always the champion. When she sees a new idea and loves it, she takes off at top speed. I showed her the WordBowl, 2011, and she was enchanted. She started gathering woven bowls from around the house. Bowls that came from Kenya. Starting cutting slips of paper and plying me for words. "Sparkly," that's a good word, isn't it, Mommy?" "That's a great word." "Is this how you spell threaten? T h r e a t e n." "Wow, you spelled that right!" "I know how to spell a lot of... Read Full Story