Banned Books in a Memorial Day Parade

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Musings, Travel, Writing

We are headed to Whidbey Island in Washington State on Thursday via Port Townsend. The Ioniq5 gets its first electric road trip test and then some! We will motor the Olympic Peninsula then travel by ferry to visit with dear friends after half a year of not much travel, health crises, assorted this and that. There will be a parade in Coupeville on Saturday I believe and we are going to march in it along with other volunteers who celebrate and promote the public library and all of its good works on that island. And I am going to sport my clear backpack full of books that far too many want to ban. Margaret Atwood. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Toni Morrison. George Orwell. The 1619 Project. Harper Lee. Toni Morrison again
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Travel without Traveling: Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Cooking, History Lessons, Travel, Writing

I have spent the past few days attempting to fit random-shaped jigsaw pieces into a puzzle. My back is to the television set where my convalescing spouse watches the second season of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy for the second time; we originally saw them during the pandemic when they first migrated from CNN (which we don’t get because we don’t have cable) to HBO…

 
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Publication News: Napalm Health Spa

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Publication News, Travel

My poem, “Tong-len Forgotten” was published once upon a time, long long ago, in the June online issue of Napalm Health Spa: Report 2007. According to The Buddhist Dictionary, tong-len is “a practice in Tibetan Buddhism of meditatively ‘sending’ (btang) one’s good fortune and happiness out to others and ‘receiving’ (len) any misfortune and negativity others may be experiencing.” We were on a trip to the lovely Québec City when I bore witness to the scene that later found its way into this poem…

 
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Roam around the World?

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Travel, Wisdom

Increasingly, I may not be a wanderer. Oh I still (somewhat) tell myself that I like the idea of travel, of venturing out into the wide world to see things, learn things, experience things, adventure. Finding local places to dine or picnic along the road if we are road-tripping. Exploring the offerings of historical societies…

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Publication News: The Dreamers Anthology

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, History Lessons, Publication News, Travel, Writing

In 2019,  the Beautiful Cadaver Project of Pittsburgh, Pennsyylvania put together an outstanding collection, The Dreamers Anthology: Writing Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jt. and Anne Frank; two of my poems, “Politics and the American Language” and “Still Birmingham” were published in it…

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Quotable Quotes: Bob Dylan on New Orleans

Nancy FlynnApostrophe Blog Archive, Arts & Culture, Travel

This was printed in the International Herald Tribune in August 2005. It is taken from Bob Dylan’s book, Chronicles: Volume One, which I have read at least twice since I wrote this post.

“The first thing you notice about New Orleans are the burying grounds—the cemeteries – and they’re a cold proposition, one of the best things there are here….

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