I've been trying to work on a poem for my mom, but I am insecure about my poetry. After my mom left my dad, she started writing poems. Maybe she wrote them before that, but I have no proof. What I have is a journal filled with poems dated 1975 or 1976. My mom inscribed …
The other day I finished reading The Book Thief. A couple days after that I read Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy. Have you read either of them? They are filled with death. So many characters die in both books. I feel drained. How do you feel when you finish a book? …
2013 nears death. Not that our calendar rules the world, but it is the way I measure time thanks to happenstance of birth. Death was nagged at me a great deal this year. A cancer diagnosis and a heart condition will remind anyone of mortality. I feel lucky to be alive. How old were you …
I've written about this topic before, but it is on my mind again. I don't know why. It stays with me. A classmate of mine was murdered in 1981. We were in the same 8th grade history class. I'd spoken to her only once or twice. She was just a girl who sat in the …
My mother drew the unicorn. I can't draw like her. I've always wanted to, but have yet to manage it. Do you compare yourself to your parents? Is there something either on of them did that you wish you could do? My mother started to write a novel. She had only a few chapters written …
Today I finished chemo. One surgery remains. The toxins will leave my body, my hair will grow back, and I'll get to call myself a survivor. But aren't we all survivors if we make it to another day? I don't know, but I find survivor a strange thing to call myself. Many people are kind …
When I was a kid (and for many years after), I would've said my biggest fear was spiders. As a teenager I'd lock myself in a room if that's what it took to get away from a spider. Spiders still cause me breathing trouble. When I started sending my writing out into the world, I …
Well, not really. And I'm not someone who tries to talk to the dead because I don't think they're listening. But anyway, Plum Tree Books wrote about poetry and death--two things often seen together--and the post suggested trying to write a poem with the title I Can Talk to the Dead. I am not a …
When I was an infant, my grandmother (pictured over there) would put a blanket on the floor for my naps. Her German Shepherd puppy, Jill (also pictured), would curl up around me and nap too. At the time, my mother was depressed and suicidal. Perhaps she wasn't the best mother those early days, but eventually …
I'm so proud and excited of the children's books my publisher has written and I've illustrated. See! They books are here at Plum Tree Books. Plum Tree also published cards with my art! If you know anyone (or school, organization, and such) that might like unique children's books, please help us spread the word. And …
Marta Bacon 