Tag: grief

Monsoon Season: A Memoir

Dori Owen

In Phoenix, it seems as if you can see forever on the desert floor without mountains to block the view. The flat geography provides a perfect vista to watch summer dust storms arrive. The storms arrive in a slow crawl, picking up momentum in a snail-like fashion. They appear to Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.

Aleppo at Christmas 2016

Merima Trako

The age of miracles pretending to be this wonderful illusion wanting to see our hearts depths and story lines wanting to leave the eyes and trips stuck in our throats wanting to achieve endless motion, desire to believe in our human sacrifice wanting a reprieve from monsters hiding wanting to Read more

Merima Trako

Merima was born and raised in Bosnia-Herzegovina (former Yugoslavia). Sudden nationalistic divide in the early nineties, leads to a bloody war where a three percent of Bosnian population (mainly Muslims) is killed. Merima and her family escape ethnic cleansing in Banja Luka (where she was born) and settle in Travnik. Her story continues with her move to the USA to study engineering and mathematics, her “other love”, where she lives now. She is a mother, a refugee, an engineer and a woman passionate about creating literary awareness about world issues, social injustices and her life experiences, consisting of complex topics, from religion to non-spiritual events. Her work is available for readers on her website www.worldaccordingtoblam.com. Most recently she published two short stories and two poems in the collection of prose and poetry of the No Name Writing Group from Washington Depot, CT in their anthology titled “This One Has No Name”.

Why Did You Kill My Sister?

Kim Sisto Robinson

“To rise, first you must burn.” ― Hiba Fatima Ahmad Dear Mike, When you were alive, I never quite knew the day of your birthday. Kay had to inform me the day you were born–“Oh, did you know it’s Mike’s birthday today? I’m having cake and ice-cream later on. Pleeeeease Read more

Kim Sisto Robinson

Kim Sisto Robinson is a mother, lover, poet, writer, educator, obsessive blogger, lover of cats, cheese puffs, chocolate chips cookies, Sylvia Plath, addicted to books, women’s stories, walking with audio books ( Lolita was off the charts!), and powerful, transformative words. Her work has appeared in Scary Mommy, Bella On Line, Glass Woman, Migrations, Rebelle Society, and Feminine Collective. She created her blog, My Inner Chick, to honor her sister, Kay, whom was murdered by her estranged husband in 2010. Her mission is to give “Voice” to all women without one. She was honored the "Men As Peacemaker's Award" in 2015 for her work with domestic violence.

Breathe

Amye Archer

Breathe. The simple act of pulling the world in and swallowing. When I was a kid, I used to hold my breath underwater for 74 seconds. I remember that number clearly because it was the neighborhood record. It was a feat to balloon my chest and deprive my body of Read more

Amye Archer

Amye Archer holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Her memoir, Fat Girl, Skinny, was named runner-up for the Red Hen Press Nonfiction Manuscript Award, and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has two poetry collections: BANGS and A Shotgun Life, both published by Big Table Publishing. Amye’s work has appeared in Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Hippocampus, Mothers Always Write, Nailed Magazine, PMS: Poem Memoir Story, PANK, and Provincetown Arts. She is the creator of The Fat Girl Blog.

In a Laundry Room on Virgin Gorda

Jennifer M. Smith

I was on Virgin Gorda, ashore at 8:00 a.m. doing my last loads of laundry before the trip south. Out of the wash and into the dryers, I was waiting to start folding. In came the cleaning lady, an older black woman, local, probably in her late sixties. “Good morning,” Read more

Jennifer M. Smith

Jennifer M. Smith is an author and an adventurer. Together with her husband, she has sailed over 40,000 miles around the world on their sailboat Green Ghost and she has plenty of stories to tell. She is working on a book about her ocean voyages but she is frequently distracted by other creative non-fiction short stories and micro-fiction stories that pop into her head and make a lot of noise until they are released through her pen or her keyboard.

Algorithms Of The Heart

Julie Anderson

I have a healthy heart; it beats it pumps it has yet to let me down. I know that I am fortunate because of this. But then my heart broke. And it stopped beating its traditional tattoo; it grew wings, the tips flapping hard, trying to burst through the cavity Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Grief: Whose Business is it?

Elizabeth Regen

“So Your Mom Died 2 Years Ago? It’s Time To Move On.” In October of 1986, when I was 11 – my mother’s father died. My grandfather. I remember my mom telling me to wash my hair well because there would be many people at the Irish Catholic wake that Read more

Dear Sir

Erin Wilburn

“There was a flower in her heart, it just needed more room to bloom, and when she let it free, she showed the world that sometimes the most beautiful things can grow in the darkest of places without the need of light.” —R.M.Drake   Dear Sir, I prayed for you Read more

Erin Wilburn

Erin Wilburn is 32 years old, now living in the heart of the New River Gorge in beautiful Fayetteville, West Virginia. She loves exploring the outdoors whether it's on her mountain bike through the trails or in her kayak through the rapids. She moved to the Appalachian mountains a few months after losing her husband and best friend, John, in a tragic kayaking accident in Northern California on March 9, 2014. John was only 30 years old. Erin and John lived in Southern Oregon at the time and had a wonderful, adventurous life together. Shortly after his death, Erin began to write. Writing has been an outlet for her pain and experience so far with this huge loss. Her hope is that by being honest with herself and others about what it is like to walk through deep grief, it may help others as well. You can read more about her experiences and perspective on her blog. Erin has also recently put together the John Duncan Wilburn Adventure Scholarship that is associated the Shenandoah Community Foundation, in honor of her beloved husband. The scholarship is open to applicants and donors alike.