In the Dirt Beneath the Marigolds
"In the sidewalk cracks beneath the swingset, a single dandelion grows, shrouded by unkempt grass and dusted with gravel. There I sit, crouched on my tippy-toes in a pink floral sundress, watching a honeybee work. As she collects pollen, she hums, just like my mother does whenever she is thinking..."
| In the Dirt Beneath the Marigolds |
A Coffee Shop Open on Sundays
"During July in the Salt Lake Valley, girdled by the backsides of the Rocky Mountains, the fireworks last for weeks. Pioneer Day brings out a sort of ultra-nationalistic pride in Utahans, and gunpowder dashes red, white, and blue across a seven-thousand-year-old sky. The city rests along the Wasatch fault line, said to be formed a faultless God, and the doorsteps are worn by the soles of dress shoes and the souls of men forcibly saved..."
| A Coffee Shop Open on Sundays |
Q&A
"Listen. The last thing I would ever want for you is to die gladly. I do not want you to look at Nothing's gnashing teeth, its smooth sweet charm, its dripping deceit, and hold out your hands..."
The Opposite of Withering
"Today, the air is full with flowers / and I remember why I came - / to this world, I mean, / and to my senses..."
| The Opposite of Withering |
November's Poetry
Some poems on snow, my dog, and how to best live life (2017).
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Disorganized Religion: Three Poems
June/July 2016: Through my journey that has taken me from beautiful Colorado to Wisconsin to Utah and back, I have wandered back and forth between varying degrees of spiritual connection and identity. These three poems, all written during a time of great hope and upheaval in my life, touch upon this often-controversial subject.
Big and Small and God
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"I am small and new. / I know I don’t understand God / like I could never understand how many stars there are / or how many moments there’ve been, / how many cells make up an aphid / or how many lives I’ve lived..."
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Confession
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"Forgive me, / for I don’t know shit about believing. / I don’t know how to say that I believe in anything I can’t / memorize without sounding like a blog post or a Hallmark greeting card / or a teenage girl who tries way too hard to write something deeper / than the holes she dug in her backyard when she was six years old / and desperate to find more than dirt...."
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Sunflowers
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"They say sunflowers turn their golden-curious faces / to follow the sun as it moves across the sky – / say we could do that too, if we really tried. / I’d like to believe them, but at this point, / I’m still learning to chase time like it’s something worth having...."
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Here and Now, Sky Gray or Blue
September 2014 - This work is a short personal essay, perhaps better defined as a vignette. With this piece, I worked to express a hope and light that so many of my pieces are lacking.
"In summer, my days are made up of words and too much coffee, of long sweat-soaked walks and writing amongst the trees. My nights are built from bleary-eyed novels, from staring out the window at the stars or the darkness that covers them, from conversations in the starlight more precious than sleep. My summers are running barefoot, chasing thunderstorms, making friends with mosquitoes that swarm near the lake. They are dandelion-crowns, they are laughter, they are rain...."
"In summer, my days are made up of words and too much coffee, of long sweat-soaked walks and writing amongst the trees. My nights are built from bleary-eyed novels, from staring out the window at the stars or the darkness that covers them, from conversations in the starlight more precious than sleep. My summers are running barefoot, chasing thunderstorms, making friends with mosquitoes that swarm near the lake. They are dandelion-crowns, they are laughter, they are rain...."
| Here and Now, Sky Gray or Blue |
Note: "Here and Now" is, by far, the oldest piece in my current portfolio. Though both my outlook and writing ability have grown considerably more mature since it was written, I maintain it as a reference to how far I have come.
Update: June 2016
Hello!
First of all: I love and miss every single one of you guys! It's been a while since I've been home or worked on this website (about five months, actually), and it's likely to be many months more. But I have a few minutes of Internet access to write this really quickly, and I'd like to update my website a little bit.
So, here's some stuff about where I'm at in my life right now:
1. I'm currently at a boarding school in Utah. It has a bit of a focus on art and music, which I enjoy greatly, and I'm quickly finding a lot of friends there. The people are awesome. I am unable to contact anyone outside of my school, so I'm thankful to have the brief opportunity to write this and let you guys know what I'm up to in life.
2. You may have noticed that I just deleted the majority of the writing from my website. I did this for a number of pretty hopeful and purposeful reasons, especially the fact that along with my sense of self, my writing is growing into a form that feels much more genuine and positive than it felt to me previously. If you know me, it's likely that you've noticed that, in the past, my writing has been easily described as (very, very) angsty. I suppose that was where I was at that time in my life - it was true for me then, and I don't regret it for a second. However, it doesn't feel real to me now. So I'm leaving this space open for all the art I plan to make in the future and all the vibrant life I plan to portray within it.
3. From one new poem I've recently written: "For all this 'Are we there yet?', there's a hell of a lot to see out the car window." I hope you all learn, as I have, to see life with whatever view makes you feel happy and whole. For all its limits and freedoms and joys and despairs, there is so much life to be experienced and it's happening right now. I hope you all experience it as much as you can.
4. Even if I can't directly talk to you right now, I love being able to feel connected to my friends and family - you - through this update. Love you!
With all my love,
Dani
June 4, 2016
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