Author: Jocelyn

  • Take Every Moment As A Gift. Then Twist It.

      “The Bear’s Money” by Louis Jenkins from The Winter Road: Prose Poems Every fall before he goes to sleep a bear will put away five or six hundred dollars. Money he got from garbage cans, mostly. Peo- ple throw away thousands of dollars every day, and around here a lot of it goes to […]

  • That Time of the Semester

    I graduated from college twenty-three years ago, but still, at least once a year, I have the “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, I woke up late and am missing my final exam but can’t find the classroom” nightmare. Considering my lax attitude towards class attendance in my college years, the notion that I can’t find the classroom isn’t necessarily […]

  • Steadily Growing

      “At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.”–Salvador Dali Today, Byron turns 42. He has been, and in some cases still is, son, brother, friend, father, student custard scooper corn cross-pollinator park ranger naturalist anthropology […]

  • Winter’s Advent

    There’s a special lull in the rhythm of the semester when students are cranking away on big projects and readying themselves for the intensity that is the End of the Semester. The work isn’t flying in because they’re diligently, one hopes, doing the work. I’m in that lull right now, swinging and swaying and trailing my […]

  • Cherish

    As the Catholic priest with multiple boyfriends can tell you: monogamy isn’t necessarily natural. However, despite evidence that the romantic ideal of meeting The One and living happily ever after is a crock, we are trained from birth to believe in it. Perhaps we’d do better to widen the scope of our relationship discourse, to […]

  • Turns Out Eli Manning’s Not the Problem

      Sometimes, if I’m standing in line at the post office (mailing you a present), and the line is really long (you’re worth the wait), I pass the time by playing one of my special mental games. These games range from “Hey, Jaundiced Guy Eyeballing the Birds of Prey Stamp Design, You Gotta Stop Smoking” to […]

  • Lack of Particulars Makes the Story

    Unrest at work has been put to rest. Negative thoughts met with positive thoughts, a whole lot plummeted into the chasm that had separated them, and there was release. And a big grinning howdy to my colleagues who read this blog.   What I can tell you about being a college English teacher is this: […]

  • People of Peace

    A massive storm is moving in to the East Coast. I am thinking of all of you, friends, who are hunkering down, waiting to find out how bad it will be. Closer to home, a massive storm is moving in on me in my work life–or so it seems, as I stew and await its […]

  • Sights and Sounds: Turkey Redux

    Roughly 30 hours after waking up and hopping onto the shuttle to Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, we pulled into Duluth. A delay (we sat on the plane in Paris for 2 1/2 hours before it ever left the ground) caused us to miss our connection in Detroit and ultimately added about 6 hours onto our final […]

  • Day Eleven: Hosçakal Istanbul

    We spent our last day in the country perfectly. No more museums. No shopping. No guide book. Instead, we hopped on the ferry to Kadakoy and then took the Metro to our friend Elaine’s house. She made us a gorgeous brunch and gave us laughs and insights galore. Spending time in conversation, remembering why we […]