Diane Taylor
I Remember
Memory is the theme of Human Chain, a collection of poetry published by one of the world’s greatest poets, Seamus Heaney, in 2011. “What is the relationship between writing poetry and memory?” he was asked by a Toronto Star reporter. “Memory has always been fundamental for me,” Heaney replied. “Remembering what I had forgotten is the […]
How’s the Weather?
How’s the weather? That’s what we ask. Like, how’s Mom, or how’s the baby. The weather is like a close relative, something or someone we care about. Indeed, sometimes we feel embraced by this ‘relative’. Love affairs happen in sun, rain, hail, the hush of no wind, the roar of a tornado, heat waves, […]
They Left Us Everything: A Memoir by Plum Johnson
Plum Johnson plumjohnson.com begins They Left Us Everything with conflict between her mother’s needs and her own fatigue and frustration from being the primary care giver for her mother for years. Johnson goes back to an earlier time, too, to describe the old clapboard house in Oakville, Ontario she grew up in, but it is […]
Close Call on the Pacific Ocean
Below is an incident I wrote in 1972 after a four month sail from San Diego through the Panama Canal and up to Key West, under sail alone—no engine, in a 46′ trimaran, similar to the one shown. We were a crew of four: the captain and his thirteen-year-old son, and my partner and I. This […]
Truth Plus Memoir Equals Revolution
When you write a memoir, you share your truths, good and bad, with those whose eyes follow your words. It’s mind to mind. It’s enlightenment, and quite possibly medicine. Franz Kafka famously said, “A book should be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” Such a book is The Education of Augie Merasty: A […]
From Love Letters to Memoir
I stood by my table of books at Chapters in Peterborough earlier this month for a book signing, just inside the front door. Several people stopped by the table to talk about memoirs. Suddenly a familiar face with a dazzling smile appeared. Joanne Culley http://www.joanneculley.com who took my course on memoir writing four years ago, […]
Tales from the Pond
(Marie Prins has written a nature memoir. The land lives, breathes and procreates alongside her. The following is an excerpt from “Manifestations from the Pond”, which appears in Hill Spirits ll, An anthology by writers of Northumberland County. I’m honoured to reprint it here. Marie is a member of Spirit of the Hills Writers.) ~~~~ Our […]
Who is Your Audience?
It was Mother’s Day in Port Hope. In a small house, gray clapboard with blue shutters, the phone rang. Her walker was handy, but so was the phone this time. It was John. “Mom, you have to write your story!” John had just reconnected with the yoga teacher his mom had signed him up with […]
I Was Named After Renate
(In the story below, Renata Hill is responding to one of my earlier blogs entitled Does Your Name Tell a Story? Hers does. Thank you, Renata, for sharing this story of remembrance here.) I was named for a childhood friend of my mother’s—a lost friend. In the early 1930’s, when my mother was no more […]
Diane Taylor 