I wrapped up the February Peace Poetry Postcard project sending out poems to fellow travelers all over the States throughout the last month. The letter carrier is still making deliveries of new cards to my place. The poems keep coming!

The time change has hit me hard. We are soaking up the long afternoons, but this far north, mornings are very dark…again. When my sleep is interrupted or I’ve stayed up too late, the thing to go is my writing practice.

I’m also in the midst of moving my writing space. I’ll have a desk for the first time! But it’s on the sun porch that has glorious windows all around and not a bit of insulation or heating. Not a place that calls me out of bed at 5 am. But I have a space heater, a good scarf, and plenty of candles and coffee.

All in all, things feel a little off here on the cusp of the new season. But I still want to be connected to my work.

Ann Kroeker released a new podcast episode called “Can a Poem a Day Make Us Better Writers?” Her enthusiasm has me excited to gather up my notebook and return to my copywork project. I finished copying out So Far So Good by hand, and started in on Ursula LeGuin’s penultimate book of poems called Late in the Day. But these poems are longer, a bit harder to write out by hand, and I’ve been stalling.

Cheered on by Ann, “a writing coach in your ear,” I am returning to this project. Even if I don’t make it out to the porch to write, I want to keep in touch with my poetic impulse. I want to meet the new day and the new season with poems instead of screens. I want to soak in good words written just on the other side of the hills.

Ann has started sharing poems on her Instagram stories. Just click on her picture at she’ll read to you!

This is my best writing advice…that doesn’t even really sound like writing advice.

Melissa Wiley wrote a poem about the creative process called “Always Leave Thread in the Needle.” I love the unexpectedness of this piece, the way what we need is found in outside the usual places. In the ashes, fallen leaves, and overturned drawers.

When I finish embroidery for the day, I always thread the needle with fresh thread. This is the hardest part for my tired eyes. If I do the hard part first, I can easily begin stitching the next time I open my project bag.

Dedicate space and time in your day to return to the page. Make it easy to get back to work. Keep your notebook and a box of black pens near you. Have good words in your ears. And quiet too.

Thanks for reading along here this month! I hope that in reading about my writing practice, you’ve been inspired to think about your own process. And maybe even got to the page some mornings. Things will probably get quieter in the coming month as I try to follow my own advice and make space for the coming light.

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When I am looking for handwork, I usually reach for embroidery. but I also love to make postcards out of calendar pages.

For years I had saved Nikki McClure calendars, but this year I have a MOMA page a day calendar. So many possibilities! We’ve loved looking at a new painting each day. And now I am slowly making a stack of cards.

I love to have a sheet of stamps ready with a few postcards. It’s the perfect way to send a thank you note or a quick hello.

But the best present that I could think to send is a postcard poem. My work is generally very short and perfect for the small spaces of postcards. For the past few years I have participated in February Peace Postcards.

In August SPLAB hosts Poetry Postcard Fest. I discovered these poets just after the cutoff date last year. I’ve been quietly dreaming of the end of next Summer and the cards I will send.

This year Rattle is hosting a postcard poem contest. It closes at the end of January, so maybe that’s another project for the first month of the new decade.

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In a recent letter Holly Wren Spaulding mentioned what she calls embodied and improvisational tools including slowness, benevolent company, quiet, rest, space, and courage. Holly’s spacious improvisations overlap with my own reasons for loving handwork.

My life and work as a mother and homeschooler is filled with the 10,000 things that need doing. I work on embroidery projects to give definition to my time off. I don’t want it to slip away because I have failed to pay attention. And yet I’m looking for a way to step away from obligation and requirements.

Embroidery stills the insistent voices in my head and in our world that says we need to do more, we need to consume more, we need to be more.

For a few minutes each day I claim my sovereignty.

By choosing to slow down, to be quiet, to rest, I create a space where courage becomes possible.

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