Here is my humble harp hospital - a perfect place for a lovely little harp to heal. I’ve been doing harp rehab for a friend’s lap harp this week, bringing this beauty back up to pitch and teaching her to make music again. She’s been stowed in a closet for many years, which is the [...]
Just a bit of encouragement: every so often, go through the stacks, the piles, the shoals of unfinished work. For me, that is always bits of paper with poems scribbled on them and then put into rough cairns to be re-found, often months later. What is somewhat funny to me is that the reason I [...]
I'm passionate about the cultivation of intelligence. Nurturing it in myself and in others is one of the most thrilling things I can imagine undertaking on planet Earth. I'm writing a book about teaching and today found me gathering pieces I've written over the years. This excerpt on what I call "integrative intelligence" caught [...]
On my Lake District adventure, I visited a small church that boasts a beautiful stained glass window designed by Edward Burne-Jones and executed by William Morris. I was so moved by the experience and so grateful to the parishioners that I wrote this poem and sent it to them. I got word this week that [...]
In which I read a beautiful Midsummer poem by Irish poet, Padraic Colum. Ah, Summer and Enchantment! From a few years back. Rediscovered today as I am working on creating a multi-media presentation for "Songs of the Poets." Will share news of that soon!
This is a story of how life conspires with us to fulfill our dearest dreams - especially when we are willing to follow good feeling and trust our hearts. For years, I dreamed of visiting the Lake District in the north of England - home of English-language Romantic poetry and a hotbed of artistic creativity [...]
I'm talking here to my fellow musicians, singers, poets, storytellers, and performers of all kinds. By "stink," I mean: ask questions, state your needs, request and require clarification. Delay assent until you receive it. Be gracious, be respectful - but make a stink. That graciousness is what makes it a "gentle stink." It's not really [...]
Culture gives women a number of problems to solve, often with no true or satisfying solution. Here’s one. I am thinking today of two occasions during the last ten years when I was manhandled by cheerful, “nice,” married men. In each case, I was a guest in their home, invited there to share music and [...]
Hello, friends! Today I want to tell you about my latest book, "How to Get Gigs You Love: Money, Fun, and Opportunity for the Solo Performer." It's a soup-to-nuts guide for getting gigs you love and rocking them once you get 'em! (It is gleefully inexpensive: $4.99. Here's a link in case you want to [...]
There are many kinds. One example: Just after Christmas, I saw a person in ripped sweatpants and a stained jacket shambling along a main road in Biddeford, Maine. It was the quality of motion that caught my eye – a trudging, struggling forwards movement that conveyed resentment and defeat. And held out at a purposeful, [...]
