I write in the dark...andI write despite...Teahouse in Granada Spain, photo by L.L. Barkat.POETRY FRIDAY:Glynn’s David, HillsideKelly’s eve’s regretLinda’s Redeemer/LoverMonica’s Han and Leia On a DateBina’s Mrs. DeWinter’s Nighttime HonestynAncY’s meeleyKelly’s tensionLaura’s FruitMaureen’s Woman in His LifeA Simple Country Girl’s Autumn DanceSojourner’s AdorationMaureen’s Last Words with Her ExecutionerTravelmom's Love Read Full Story

Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places is going to be featured on Beliefnet in early December, thanks to the creative mind (and gracious heart) of Joan P. Ball, author of the upcoming book Flirting with Faith: My Spiritual Journey from Atheism to a Faith-Filled Life.If you post about Stone Crossings between now and then and drop your post link here (or there) so we don't miss you, you'll get a chance to be featured on Beliefnet. Five posts will be chosen for feature over fiv... Read Full Story

The post got 1200+ views. Almost 200 came through Twitter.That's significant.Which means it wouldn't hurt to make oneself more tweetable. Here's my new tool of choice: Tweetmeme.Okay, load it up and help me tweet you. I am SO waiting to click that cool little button and send some traffic your way.(To load Tweetmeme for Blogger, go here To load Tweetmeme for Wordpress, go here) Note that the new Blogger Layouts template seems to be problematic when trying to get Tweetmeme's generated code. I'v... Read Full Story

When you grow up like I did, you try to know-it-all. Everything depends on it. Supposedly.It has been a long time since "growing up", but still some strange place in your head never quite forgives you for not holding together what was never in your power to hold together anyhow— your parent's marriage, hoped-for joys of holidays and ordinary days quashed by volatility, or some other such thing.Trying to be right, to know it all, brings the need for control; after all, it's so much easie... Read Full Story

I'm always up for trying something new. So when the Twitter people offered a Beta chance to create lists, why I set right to it over at @llbarkat.One day into the endeavor and I'm already doubting the usefulness of Twitter lists. For me anyhow. Oh, I see that marketers would find it very useful and journalists perhaps, for targeting and scanning and so forth. But my Social Media life is quite organic. I hang out with people I can put on lists (and I have already done it), but the truth is I l... Read Full Story

Sometimes when we are too long away from the page we fear it. Or maybe we fear ourselves. That our absence has taken us too far. How will we find our way back?It is a form of trust to return to the emptiness and put our color down once more. Trust, that we still exist, that time has not stolen the core of us.The weeks have taken me away. Too many things pressing. No chance to touch pastel to paper. And this morning I felt afraid. What was to fear? I found myself once again, there in the color... Read Full Story

Want to keep me? Make it easier for me to leave.That's the philosophy behind a strategy that, more often than not, helps businesses retain executives. How do savvy businesses make it easier for executives to leave and, surprisingly, get them to stay? Besides offering professional development opportunities, they encourage social networking, by hosting events where execs will meet others beyond their immediate circle. How cool is that? We regular-people have a word for "social networking event.... Read Full Story

Viruses used to be simple. I'd sneeze, you'd catch my cold. Those were the days.Yesterday, I perused a bunch of articles about Penenberg's new book Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves Reading these articles, I learned that spreading a cold just got more complicated. Not impossible, mind you, but way past a simple sneeze.You can read some of the informative articles (I've linked to them at the bottom of this post). Or you can grab the high poin... Read Full Story

Pokey.That's the word Linda left out.She made a pool, a stack, a pile. She fished, sorted, pulled, picked. And pokey got left behind (Are we surprised? Pokey is always fifty steps back, where we're likely to forget about it.)When I saw the poem Linda made, without pokey, I commented that it would have been quite a different piece if she'd used that word. It's a wonder, isn't it, how words have personalities?This week, caught on the parkway, I sat thinking about the word hibernate. After all, ... Read Full Story

Rain tap taps. Air is frost-ready. Weeks go by and, still, I have no heat. It is coming at last, later this week, but in the meantime here I am...Sitting by the fire. Lugging logs from the garage. Tending, turning. Warming hands. Bundling. Noticing.Like Gerald May in his wilderness, I sit alone and stare at flames dancing. They melt away thoughts, worries, logic and analysis. I find myself, as he did, feeling there is nothing in particular to do. This amber movement mesmerizes, frees. Unlike ... Read Full Story