catching days

Main menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • me
    • 365 true things
    • 60 to 60
    • this is 57
    • this is 58
  • about blog
  • how we spend our days
    • current writer in the series
    • about the current writer
  • reading
    • what i’m reading now: 3/26/14 update
  • writing
    • my novels
    • my stories
    • my reviews
    • my essays
  • photos
  • shakespeare days
    • pronunciation
  • click here…

Category Archives: Mary Oliver

Post navigation

this day: february 20, 2016

Posted on February 20, 2016 by cynthia

20

I’ve been wanting to write to you all for some time now–all of February really and somehow it’s already the 20th. I’ve chosen to let other things take priority–my novel mainly. I just finished a stretch of working on it everyday … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, journeys, Mary Oliver, this day Tagged alexander chee, One Blue Sail

hallelujah: 365/365

Posted on January 12, 2016 by cynthia

21

At times, making it to the end of this practice seemed impossible. At the beginning, I would stare at my screen for hours, getting more and more anxious. In those early days I had to write the post first thing in the morning … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver

tides: 364/365

Posted on January 11, 2016 by cynthia

12

Throughout the year, I’ve resisted thinking about the next day’s post so I wouldn’t scare stuff away. It’s what I have to do when I get really close to something writing fiction–under no circumstance do you think; stop thinking and … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver, poetry, provincetown

attentiveness: 359/365

Posted on January 6, 2016 by cynthia

6

Attentiveness is something that, historically, I haven’t been very good at. But it’s something that writing is teaching me and also something that this year has prioritized. Many have attributed the quote below to Mary Oliver, but I’ve looked and looked … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver Tagged attentiveness

journey: 108/365

Posted on April 30, 2015 by cynthia

6

It’s the last day of National Poetry Month so I wanted to give you some bits of a Mary Oliver poem I discovered on January 11th of this year, on the plane headed to Provincetown–“The Journey,” which you can find … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver, poetry

undone: 106/365

Posted on April 28, 2015 by cynthia

10

Wherever I go, I always take at least one book of poetry. This time, I brought three, and since there are still two days remaining in National Poetry Month, I thought I would tell you which books I brought, none … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver, poetry Tagged A Thousand Mornings, Galway Kinnell, Olena Kalytiak Davis, On the Kitchen Table From Which Everything Has Been Hastily Removed, The Book of Nightmares

poetry: 99/365

Posted on April 21, 2015 by cynthia

24

Right off the bat, I should come clean with the fact that I love the slim volumes–there’s something so elegant about them. I read different poets for different reasons. I love Carl Phillips and Mary Oliver, to speak of two extremes. … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver, poetry

going after it: 64/365

Posted on March 17, 2015 by cynthia

6

When I set my mind to something, I go after it–whatever it is–and I seldom take no for an answer. My mother was ecstatic when I got my driver’s license.  If we can’t do it this week, —how about next week? How … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver

my wild ride: 16/365

Posted on January 28, 2015 by cynthia

19

It’s not that I want to be a rule-follower. I just grew up that way, but it doesn’t make any sense. It was the sixties, for god’s sake. There was Woodstock. Hippies were cool. But in eighth grade, at a Latin Convention … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 true thing, Mary Oliver Tagged Our World

Post navigation

April 2018
M T W T F S S
« Mar    
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

Catching Days

is a blog about writing, reading, and life--how they meld, clash, and astonish. It's a net for catching days...and for catching me.

Click to follow Catching Days by RSS

RSS Feed

There is no way back. We can only dream our way forward. --Joy Castro

*chrome users…

You may notice weird spacing in these posts. If it drives you crazy like it does me, please use a different browser.

One of my stories …

"The Empty Armchair" in Contrary Magazine

One of my essays …

"Not Every Sentence Can Be Great But Every Sentence Must Be Good" at Brevity

One of my reviews …

Heather Newton's Under The Mercy Trees in Contrary Magazine and republished by the National Book Critics Circle on Powell's Books Review-a-Day

Catching Days is

one of POWELL'S BOOKS
“Lit Blogs We Love”

shakespeare days: reading all 38 plays in the order he wrote them

22 plays read / 16 to go

Favorite Posts

  • 12 keys to stronger writing from Annie Dillard via Alexander Chee
  • are we losing our senses
  • feeding the buzzards
  • full circle
  • like a wick
  • row houses
  • taking a story apart
  • that sinking feeling
  • the days cottages
  • the street ran on
  • the writer's notebook

from my desk

“It’s hard to tell somebody what you mean to say. And that’s an idea that I’m obsessed with. It’s why I write. It’s why everybody writes.” --Jonathan Safran Foer

Blog Stats

  • 329,133 hits

I’m @catchingdays on twitter…

  • Do this at least 3 more times, same exercise—same ages & same word. What we usually do is ‘look, I made a paragraph… twitter.com/i/web/status/9… 6 hours ago
  • We’re #writing in Boulder @writingxwriters “Divide yr age by 3, write from each of these 3 ages, on quiet”… twitter.com/i/web/status/9… 7 hours ago
  • RT @catchingdays: We’re #writing in Boulder @writingxwriters “Divide yr age by 3, write from each of these 3 ages, on quiet. #writewxw 7 hours ago
  • We’re #writing in Boulder @writingxwriters “Divide yr age by 3, write from each of these 3 ages, on quiet. #writewxw 7 hours ago
  • What if in writing about the water bottle I miss the story about the chair? (replace these 2 items with 2 things im… twitter.com/i/web/status/9… 7 hours ago

Categories

  • 1 true thing (368)
  • 60 to 60 (47)
  • accumulation (53)
  • Anne Enright (10)
  • Annie Dillard (16)
  • art (18)
  • awards and prizes (27)
  • Carson McCullers (4)
  • catching moments (65)
  • character (26)
  • Columbus GA (64)
  • continuous life (66)
  • Contrary (28)
  • craft of writing (126)
  • Dani Shapiro (21)
  • details (46)
  • dialogue (20)
  • ecole champlain (13)
  • Ellen Gilchrist (10)
  • essays (39)
  • fall (25)
  • family (56)
  • favorite books (29)
  • first novels (36)
  • first sentences (27)
  • form (18)
  • French/France (33)
  • Henri Matisse (8)
  • How We Spend Our Days (178)
  • Hunger Mountain (12)
  • journals (13)
  • journeys (80)
  • leaves (28)
  • life (106)
  • marriage (39)
  • Mary Oliver (9)
  • memoir (32)
  • memory (75)
  • mfa (55)
  • movies (16)
  • music (15)
  • my writing (46)
  • my writing notebook (7)
  • novels (68)
  • obsession (29)
  • Pam Houston (45)
  • perspective (26)
  • photo stories (24)
  • place (72)
  • poetry (50)
  • postcards (4)
  • process (14)
  • provincetown (75)
  • Rachel Cusk (12)
  • reading (66)
  • reading lists (23)
  • recurring images (24)
  • reviews (50)
  • revision (9)
  • schedules (13)
  • shakespeare (8)
  • shapes (39)
  • Sirenland (13)
  • stories (67)
  • structure (22)
  • the day (67)
  • the days cottages (17)
  • this day (1)
  • this is (5)
  • time (87)
  • truth (63)
  • Uncategorized (1)
  • Virginia Woolf (9)
  • why I write (14)
  • William Faulkner (3)
  • words (21)
  • Writing by Writers (20)
  • writing day (16)
  • writing group (16)

Archives

Top Posts & Pages

  • How We Spend Our Days: Christian Kiefer
    How We Spend Our Days: Christian Kiefer
  • my writing notebook: the handmaid's tale
    my writing notebook: the handmaid's tale
  • How We Spend Our Days: Kelle Groom
    How We Spend Our Days: Kelle Groom
  • 12 keys to stronger writing from Annie Dillard via Alexander Chee
    12 keys to stronger writing from Annie Dillard via Alexander Chee
  • the next writer in the series: march 1, 2018
    the next writer in the series: march 1, 2018
  • 365 true things
    365 true things
  • How We Spend Our Days: Cornelius Eady
    How We Spend Our Days: Cornelius Eady
  • the writer's desk
    the writer's desk
  • not writing books but writing in books
    not writing books but writing in books

1957 age aging A Kind of Flying alexander chee A Little More About Me Alone With All That Could Happen Amy and Isabelle And Yet They Were Happy Arlington Park A Visit From the Goon Squad Await Your Reply Black & White canyon ranch Cheryl Strayed Christine Schutt David Jauss Davidson College Dawn Tripp dorothy allison Falling Through Space fenton johnson Fugitive Blue Gift from the Sea Gilead Home Hunger Mountain If I Loved You I Would Tell You This Infinite Jest Jane Kenyon Collected Poems Jodi Paloni Journal of a Solitude Lidia Yuknavitch Light Years Mary Gordon Matisse on Art Mrs. Dalloway Negotiating With the Dead Olive Kitteridge One Story Oxford American Dictionary pam houston Paul Lisicky Picturing the Wreck Remembering the Bone House ron carlson Ron Carlson Writes a Story Saving Agnes shakespeare Sight Hound Slow Motion Steve Almond Tender is the Night The Anna Papers The Architect of Flowers The Earth Hums in B Flat The Forgotten Waltz The Gathering The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O'Connor The Hours The Lives of the Heart The Maytrees The New York Times The Rest of Life The Shadow of the Wind The Story Behind the Story The Writing Life Thinking About Memoir VCFA Ways of Seeing whole30 william shakespeare Winter Morning Walks Words Overflown by Stars Writing Toward Home

Member of

She Writes

© copyright

copyright 2008
Cynthia Newberry Martin

Site Meter
Blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel