Do What Scares You
This essay first appeared on Violinist.com, June 19, 2014 The door will open, casting a long rectangle of light on the dark floor and letting in the sounds of the audience, rustling and coughing. The people in the front row…
karenErile
Text of Joyce DiDonato’s Commencement Speech at The Juilliard School’s 109th Commencement Ceremony
Chairman Kovner, President Polisi, most distinguished honorees, dedicated family, friends, faculty, and to each of the talented, ambitious, courageous, adventurous Juilliard graduates of the class of 2014 before us here today, thank you! I stand before you this morning, duly…
30 Days of Poetry – Karen Rile’s April Poem-a-Day Project
Last autumn’s pumpkin shriveled in the April sun– nobody sees it. April 1 Fetch, Late March The turban squash that rested on the window ledge lies shattered on the flagstone like an eggshell. Winter made it hollow.…
A little pre-spring poetry
Binocular That flinch hovering by the yew– what’s in his beak, a dot or a dash? A black dog, or a dot, is sleeping on the glass. The first robbers of spring: they’re flatter, more bloodthirsty than last year. All…
On Thinking About Polar Bears
This essay originally appeared on Violinist.com A high school senior was trying out for a competitive acting program. When she finished reciting her monologues the program director smiled at her and said, “Sometimes we want to jump across the table and…
Luck
This essay originally appeared on Violinist.com, part 13 in the series “A Parents’ Guide to Conservatory Auditions” In a poem, one line may hide another line, As at a crossing, one train may hide another train. That is, if you…
In The Bleak Midwinter
This essay originally appeared on Violinist.com. …O sisters too, how may we do, For to preserve this day… When our four daughters were very small and just beginning to learn to play their miniature violins, what I looked forward to—and…
Talent Loves Company
This essay originally appeared on Violinist.com. Every fall I teach an advanced fiction-writing class. Now that the semester is over I can report that my students were terrific this year, every one of them. Our discussions were dynamic and stimulating.…
Choose Your Own Ending
Every spring I teach a 14-week undergraduate writing workshop at my university. It’s a fiction writers bootcamp. Each Monday we address a new technique: point-of-view, narrative distance, dialogue, tension, plotting, narrative college. The list goes on: thirteen topics, in all, with…
Tree Harmonics
TREE HARMONICS for Calla on her 19th birthday I. A modulation in the wind foreshadows the new harmonics. A modulation in color: cherry petals resolve towards green, yellow-green, as if liquid light were puddling in those thin leaf-cups. We are…
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