Oh, but you flatter me

Stop the blog, I'm a winner!

Sara Roswell, of Life's A Wheeze, has crowned me a Stylish Blogger. She calls me her "main wheezer" and "running sympathizer." I love this. Go wheezers! I hope the award comes with a gold-plated inhaler.

While flattery does wonders for the spirit (and my complexion), I quickly recognized this honor requires a serving of self-absorption. But like a slumber party of giddy confessions, I'm playing along — and hope you will, too.

The Stylish Blogger Award Rules
- Make this a post & link back to the person who gave you the award
- Share seven things about yourself
- Award five great bloggers
- Contact the bloggers to tell them they've won!

Seven Things

I am a writer who has worn all writerly hats: newspaper reporter, editor, corporate communicator, grant writer, copywriter, publicist and poet. Note: I think this nugget alone should qualify as my seven things about myself.

I am curious. I ask a lot of questions. This is often misunderstood (or perhaps keenly perceived) as nosy.

I have asthma and I run (well, really, a slow jog, a slog). See photo.

My favorite words (today) are moxie, grit, crafty, squeamish, skirmish.

I love nuts, the food, as well as nuts, the people.

I was born in Portland, Oregon, and have since lived in: San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Durango, Colorado; New York, New York; Seattle, Washington; Goldendale, Washington; The Dalles, Oregon; Ouray, Colorado; Laramie, Wyoming; Yachats, Oregon.

I can't imagine anyone wants to know this much about me.

Five Favorite Blogs

The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks - Bethany Keeley-Jonker

 Both Fires - Molly Spencer

Lisa Romeo Writes - Lisa Romeo

Book of Kells - Kelli Russell Agodon

What I Wore - Jessica Quirk

Thank you, Sara, for this fun award. And thank you, bloggers & readers, for your support, encouragement  and participation in this vast, and increasingly interconnected, world.

On Sunday

Prayer in My Boot

For the wind no one expected

For the boy who does not know the answer

For the graceful handle I found in a field
attached to nothing
pray it is universally applicable

For our tracks which disappear
the moment we leave them

For the face peering through the cafe window
as we sip our soup

For cheerful American classrooms sparkling
with crisp colored alphabets
happy cat posters
the cage of the guinea pig
the god with division flying out of his tail
and the classrooms of our cousins
on the other side of the earth
how solemn they are
how gray or green or plain
how there is nothing dangling
nothing striped or polka-dotted or cheery
no self portraits or visions of cupids
and in these rooms the students raise their hands
and learn the stories of the world

For library books in alphabetical order
and family businesses that failed
and the house with boarded windows
and the gap in the middle of a sentence
and the envelope we keep mailing ourselves

For every hopeful morning given and given
and every future rough edge
and every afternoon
turning over in its sleep

 — Naomi Shihab Nye

It's a gray and gloomy weekend in my part of the world. And this poem, this prayer, touches all the universal — internal and external — aches. Many thanks to Molly Spencer, at Both Fires, who shared this poem with me.  

What's your Sunday prayer, or poem? 

Thankful Thursday: Stacked!

Bought, borrowed, gifted. New & used.

Stories, poems, tales & true.

I am thankful for this fresh stack of books.

It's Thankful Thursday. What are you thankful for today?

Winner!

Following a highly unscientific but honest drawing (I closed my eyes and picked from the pile of entries) I am happy to announce the winner of Dixmont, poems by Rick Campbell.

And the winner is . . .

Fred!

Thanks to all for playing, reading, writing & inviting words to infuse & enthuse your lives. And don't let the poetry love end with this drawing. Purchase Dixmont here.

Last chance!

Hurry, hurry, don't delay! This is your last chance to win Dixmont, by Rick Campbell.

To win this book, simply add your name to the comment section here.

The lucky winner will be drawn at random and announced on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 (that's tomorrow!).