L.L. Barkat
i like stones, people, poetry... what the heck
L.L. Barkat
- Birthday
- October 26
- Bio
- Author 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing' and 'InsideOut: poems'; artist; musician. Did I say I love chocolate? I do.
MY RECENT POSTS
- On, In, and Around Mondays:
The Smallest Wild Rose Will Do
May 26, 2012 05:56PM - The Artist's Way: Collecting
Quotes & Questions
May 23, 2012 11:17AM - On, In, and Around Mondays:
Date with the Coyotes
May 19, 2012 04:10PM - On, In, and Around Mondays:
The Questionable School Choice
May 12, 2012 03:57PM - On, In and Around Mondays:
Focusing on the Wild
May 05, 2012 11:20AM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Thank *you* for finding
something beautiful. :)”
March 24, 2012 09:41PM - “thank you, Phyllis
:)”
December 31, 2011 12:44PM - “This is truly lovely.
Makes me want a day in the
sun, this
Autumn. Or a day in
th…”
October 16, 2010 09:42AM - “Fred, thanks! It was a
piggyback poem, a play on the
title
poem from the book
&qu…”
July 01, 2010 06:21PM - “The part about pressing
"end call." That's the
part.
Yes.”
April 26, 2010 08:52AM
MAY 26, 2012 5:56PM
On, In, and Around Mondays: The Smallest Wild Rose Will Do
I'm
mixing it up, since I've already read The Artist's Way, twice.
I'm
reading it a third time now, yes, for the book club, but I also got Cameron's Finding Water from the library. It gets at some
of the same material from a different angle, with the coolest
little shifts in/… Read full post »
MAY 23, 2012 11:17AM
The Artist's Way: Collecting Quotes & Questions
Sometimes I simply like to collect quotes. Like these from today's first book club discussion of The Artist's Way.
For me, it's almost a form of poem-writing, to do this. I lift essential words from a text and they stand in a line, speaking powerfully...
***
How do you know if you are creatively/…
MAY 19, 2012 4:10PM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Date with the Coyotes
The sign says coyotes live here. But I walk in anyway, thinking I owe Lyla an Artist’s Date.
Gradually, the sounds of the road are replaced with idyllic buzzings, rustlings, the sound of water babbling under an abandoned stone foundation. I hear a rattling and think “coyote,†but it’s j/…
MAY 12, 2012 3:57PM
On, In, and Around Mondays: The Questionable School Choice
"Sometime I want to hear how distance-learning has gone for your daughter this year," she wrote.
I am not sure what to say.
On the floor are three copies of Machiavelli's The Prince. Different versions, for comparison. My girl ordered them from the library after reading an excerpt in her history/…
MAY 5, 2012 11:20AM
On, In and Around Mondays: Focusing on the Wild
Every year, this lawn gets wilder.
I have been letting it happen, even making it happen by spreading
dandelion seeds to the wind, by refusing to mow the leopard-faced
flowers that look something like violets but smaller and more
elongated. This morning, I was greeted by more buttercups,
… Read full post »
MAY 3, 2012 8:50PM
Rumors Writes on the Ether
Delighted to be at Jane Friedman's place for the month of May. She's got some of the best advice on writing and publishing you'll find anywhere.
APRIL 28, 2012 8:50AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Eating the Simple
They got a $157,000 grant to study dandelions.
But long before this, my mother taught us to eat the greens.
Sometimes we eat the flowers too, tickly as they are, because there's a lovely sweetness inside the tickle. Cut open the stems or leaves, and you've got a free remedy for skin conditions./…
APRIL 21, 2012 9:56AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Listen to the Small
Looking out over the lawn, its uneven terrain of purple spikey wild flowers and white violets, I perceive within myself a small ache.
Maybe a loneliness.
I sit very still and listen to it, until it grows large enough to ask for expression. Then I pick up my business journal and begin to/…
APRIL 17, 2012 11:29AM
Making Your Way
What if there is something you need to be born to today?
How will you make your way?
One little tap at a time in a determined direction.
And suddenly, seemingly overnight, everything will feel open and filled with possibility.
____
My favorite form of self-reflective tapping is an occasional return/…
APRIL 14, 2012 12:08PM
On, In, and Around Mondays: What Makes Your Writing Day?
I noticed it one day.
How I drink differently from a teacup than I drink from a mug.
Oh, that doesn't mean I eschew mugs. I've got my days when I want to steep tea and drink it down, all in one convenient place.
But I noticed it.
Something about the tilt, the edge, the/…
APRIL 7, 2012 9:22AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Reclaiming the Practice of Cloud-Reading
"How *do* you do it?" she emailed, with a little wink.
My friend was referring to a photo of one thing that suggested the shape of another.
I loved her question, because it made me ask... how can this happen more, and purposefully?
Thinking back on my camera travels for the week, I answere/…
MARCH 31, 2012 10:11AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: The Power of Presence in Photos & Writing
"It has presence," I said.
I was trying to explain why the photograph worked.
A few days later, I was reading Edward Hirsch, and found this: "Poems are presences."
The two events have been on my mind all morning.
What gives a sense of presence?
I look at the photograph of the purple wildflowers, t/…
MARCH 24, 2012 6:52PM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Draw that Circle Now
She opens the box.
It is books. A lot of poetry books. Sent to me by an editor friend.
I figure she will look through them, stack them up somewhere in the living room, walk away.
But no.
She makes a circle. "It's a poetry circle!" she exclaims. "For you!"
I am sorry I can't sit/…
MARCH 19, 2012 9:21AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Say Yes
"The heart-stopping act of saying yes."
I still remember those words from The Soul Tells a Story. They seem apt for a weekend when I talked about saying no as a path to the soul.
Sometimes the small yes's are all we can say while we are otherwise saying no. I think that's/…
MARCH 13, 2012 10:12AM
Mug Shot Project: Win Something Beautiful
If you give her your Mug Shot, she might give you something in return...
Check out Laura Boggess's Mug Shot Project promotion. There's Kelly Sauer and Emily Wierenga beauty involved, so you won't want to miss it.
MARCH 12, 2012 8:26AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: The Unfolding Day
The trees are bare against the sky, and they lean across the back road, as if reaching to one to another across the gap. I remember driving this lane with my grandmother over twenty years ago, and suddenly time feels as if it's peeling back. I get this odd sensation that/…
MARCH 3, 2012 7:52PM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Operation Memory Delivery
"We'll be there in 20 minutes," they said.
I hung up the phone.
"Can you help me move all these books, Honey?" I said to my Littlest. "They're delivering the couch very soon."
She helped me stack and restack the many books we have on the floor near the couch. This is where my/…
FEBRUARY 27, 2012 9:28AM
On, in, and Around Mondays: The Power of Being Second
I walk alone today.
To the west is the river, obstructed. Such a beautiful vista this should be, but rooftops and wires, trees with plastic bags somehow caught in their tippy tops spoil the view. Such a vista would be my first choice for photographs, but it is not available to/…
FEBRUARY 23, 2012 7:18PM
You Don't Need a Degree to Find Your Voice
This excerpt of Rumors of Water ran at Jane Friedman's. If you don't know Jane, you want to, you just don't know it yet. :)
She was named a Top 10 Woman Entrepreneur by Forbes recently. And, she is a vibrant, knowledgable person in the publishing industry.
Jane gave the Rumors excerpt/…
FEBRUARY 20, 2012 9:00AM
On, in, and Around Mondays: When the Gift Knows What You Need
Every morning I would make tea, in an individual teapot.
Every morning, my older daughter would come by surreptitiously and steal-away with some of the tea.
"Hey, did you take my tea?" I'd say, and laugh, when I'd gone back for more tea and found my teapot wanting.
Then I received a casual teapot/…
FEBRUARY 15, 2012 4:37PM
Because My Walls Can't Take it Anymore
I love beautiful art. I love Emily Wierenga.
It seemed natural to find ways to bring Emily's beautiful art into my home, without finding more wall space (which I do not have, at all).
This is the result...
The Emily Collection
So.
My girls each got a journal for Valentine's Day. "I can put my/…
FEBRUARY 13, 2012 8:32AM
On, in, and Around Mondays: Writer Needs Reflection
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 pervad/…
FEBRUARY 10, 2012 8:26PM
Favorite Since Bird by Bird
"It’s a beautiful book, easily my favorite book on writing since Bird by Bird..."
continue reading at Kimberlee Conway Ireton's
FEBRUARY 6, 2012 7:31AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Delivering Happiness
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/…
JANUARY 30, 2012 9:15AM
On, In, and Around Mondays: Getting Ideas from Pinterest
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 cou/…
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