RachelVB.com

Category: Writing Life

  • Cold cozy house

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    rachelvb
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    The cozy winter house isn’t so cozy this morning. The water level on the furnace dipped too low again and it turned off in the middle of the night. I woke up this morning and just knew. The air outside our down comforter was so chilled and sulky. I should have stayed in bed. It…

  • Left or right or straight or back?

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    rachelvb
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    I was always a kid who kept looking for things long after others had given up.  I was always a kid who kept working the knots in string until I got a straight line. I was always a kid digging in the mud to find the toads. I knew early there had to be a…

  • Edges

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    rachelvb
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    I met something this morning. I walked into something maybe I was ready to walk into. Or maybe I wasn’t, I’m not sure yet. All I can say is I feel a little shaky, a little out of breath, starving now like I’ve run a marathon for days and haven’t eaten. I feel my spines…

  • Day off

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    rachelvb
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    I had the best day today. i watched a little girl in a pink jacket and a blue backpack fall on the sidewalk because she was running too fast (that sounds sadistic to say right after I said I had the best day), but the best part of it was the she picked herself up,…

  • Personal Day

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    rachelvb
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    I’m taking a personal day because I haven’t finished my coffee yet. I’ve reheated it twice and I’m going to finish it. I’m going to finish. I’m eating warm pumpkin bread and drinking my coffee. I’m watching the storm outside. It keeps flicking the lights on and off, the wires keep tripping over themselves. I…

  • Grandma Poet

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    rachelvb
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    My boyfriend brought me home coffee from Seattle. Colombia El Jordan from Stumptown Coffee. A little brown bag with a tongue card you can pull in and out of its skin. You  have to drink the WHOLE cup he said to me. You have to. This little bag of coffee cost $13.75 and I tend…

  • Big-girl shoes

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    rachelvb
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    I picked up the guitar this morning for what’s seemed like a year. years keep popping up today. I tuned it poorly to itself because it is a solo instrument in my house and has only to answer to itself and me and my fingers that have no calluses on them and my cat who…

  • hIgh

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    rachelvb
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    I had the best writing high this morning. Even before I sat down I could feel the beautiful energy. You may only be writing drafts, there are still things unfinished, lines that need to be rewoven, but somewhere within the dew outside, the morning seemingly lasting forever, the sweet bitter coffee, the quiet, the calm,…

  • Till I am full

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    rachelvb
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    I’ve had a couple days marathon and now I feel a lull, wonder what I’m supposed to do with myself until the next marathon. I keep thinking I’ll find a system and get it down, but it never works that way. The only thing I can trust is that it will come again and to…

  • strange turns

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    rachelvb
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    The past few days I’ve been looking in the wrong columns thinking they are the right. I’ve been making friends with cough syrup to help me sleep but I’m not dreaming and so I’m living in dreaming instead. My poems are taking strange turns into places I’d never thought they would or could go. They…