Fight and inform: Connection, and a poem by Penny Field

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breaking silence, connection, domestic violence, domestic violence awareness, escaping domestic violence, guest post, Penny Field, poem, poetry, psychotherapy, sharing

“…We were all on the run, / refugees, chasing a quickly sinking sun.” Photo by Flickr user Thomas Hawk (Creative Commons license).

I’m going to share with you the number #1 reason why I write about domestic violence, exemplified by this poem:

DESERT STORM, by Penny Field

On the first morning of the first Gulf War, mouth
dry as sand, teeth clenched, feeling my head explode
from last night’s chardonnay, I slipped from the house,
packed the babies into my old car, and drove

as far away as I could get in a day.
Radio reports said that US soldiers
were dropping bombs in a country far away
but the blasts were landing hard on my shoulders

right here, knowing it was all about power
and money. I imagined them all running;
women fleeing with their children, under fire,
burqas flying, clutching little hands, trying

to escape violence. We were all on the run,
refugees, chasing a quickly sinking sun.

I am not a brand: Blogging to share, and resisting biz words in art

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being unique, blogging, branding, community, mommy blogs, sharing, single moms, single mother bloggers, writing platform

Sometimes the business part of being a writer burns my skin. Photo by Flickr user Derek Garvey (Creative Commons license).

First non-holiday-ish post of 2015 and the (nonexistent) pressure (that I put on myself for no reason) to write an interesting blog post is on.

I am not ashamed to admit to caring a lot about what I write and put out into the world, even in a blog post. Sure, there is a certain in-the-moment-ness to blogging that doesn’t always require polished, fully realized thoughts, and maybe that’s why I’m drawn to it. Plus, I try to write every day, and now blogging counts toward that, so I win! Against myself!

But ok, I still want to write things that people want to read.