Front Page - Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

I believe in the transformative power of our stories and in our innate ability to write toward greater courage, resilience, and creativity. As a writer, educator, creativity consultant and coach, and the former Kansas Poet Laureate, I work with individuals, businesses, and communities to live our truest stories. You can find my essays, poems, interviews & songs here and my books of poetry, fiction, memoir, and anthologies here.

Zoom Jedi Facilitation Training: Learn facilitation and Zoom tips and innovations for inspiring and effective meetings or workshops, July 23 - Aug. 6.

Life & Livelihood Small Group Coaching: Join Laura Packer and me to explore your life's work. July 25, Aug. 11, or Sept. 16.

Poetry Playhouse: Explore, experiment, play, rest, unearth, and renovate your writing. 8-week online class starting Sept. 6.

Brave Voice: Home Edition: Replenish your creative spirit in Kelley Hunt and my 15th annual retreat from our homes to yours Sept. 20-25

Who is That Masked Poet?: Everyday Magic, Day 1010

June 26, 2020

I never felt like much of a vigilante before, but lately, I can’t help myself. After shopping at our very safe food co-op where everyone was wearing masks except for one young family, I eyed said family in the parking lot, right next to where I would be returning my empty cart. “Should I?” I

What is a Year?: Everyday Magic, Day 1009

June 17, 2020

A year ago, I was positively radioactive. On June 14, I had surgery to insert a tiny gold disk of radioactive pellets in my right eye, and on June 19, I had surgery to have it removed. That span of days, I was scared and exhausted by unremitting pain (that would go on beyond the

Breathe In Peace, Breathe Out Love: Everyday Magic, Day 1008

June 2, 2020

I thought a global pandemic was enough: enough pain, suffering, fear, restriction, uncertainty, and dread. Turns out I was wrong. We now have violent riots (most of which, from all I’m reading in the news and hearing from eye witnesses, seem fueled by outside forces bent on division and hatred) topping off hundreds of peaceful

The Peonies Where a Tornado, Cancer Diagnosis, and Pandemic Meet: Everyday Magic, Day 1007

May 24, 2020

As I watch the Pendleton’s peonies I just bought rush from tight little balls to full-throttle fireworks of blossoms, I keep thinking of three impossible things: the massive tornado that tunneled through our area last May 28th, my eye cancer diagnosis right before the tornado, and the pandemic that ups the ante on anxiety and

The Brave Voice of the Iris: Everyday Magic, Day 1006

May 15, 2020

The irises are falling all over themselves with the weight of their beauty. It’s banner year where they’ve gone beyond simply showing off to flinging their gorgeousness at us with IMAX screen intensity. For the last 15 years, I’ve cut and bundled them carefully in a cacophony of vases in a large box. Then I

Cancer Anniversary: From a Personal Pandemic to a Global One: Everyday Magic, Day 1005

April 30, 2020

A year ago today, pacing an empty parking lot, I cried so hard on the phone with my friend Kelley that it was hard to get the words out: “I have cancer. In my eye. I’m so scared.” Ken was racing back from Topeka to meet me after my two hours of scans at the

A Letter From the Post-Pandemic Future: Everyday Magic, Day 1004

April 19, 2020

Dear You, Yes, I hear you knocking on my door at all hours of the day and especially night, calling me out of my sleep because you’re not getting enough of your own. You want to know what will be, how it will happen, and especially when. Fair enough questions given that you’re human, and

If God Didn't Want Us to Pray at Home, She Wouldn't Have Invented Zoom: Everyday Magic, Day 1003

April 11, 2020

Or Facebook Live. Or Youtube. Or any number of places to help us worship together while keeping physically apart and spiritually close. A church in Lawrence is doing by having people drive to their parking lot to watch a minister leading them while listening to the service on a radio station. The Kansas Zen Center

The Night John Prine Died: Everyday Magic, Day 1002

April 8, 2020

The Night John Prine Died The pink full moon rose over the pandemic singing through the tree, “Hello in there. Hello.” We listened, all children grown old, but always looking for something to hold onto, even angels of the old rivers of our heart’s journeys, grown wilder in their holiness, forcing new

Walking With Courage, Vulnerability, and Tenderness: Everyday Magic, Day 1,001

March 31, 2020

Amazingly enough, we are arrived at the last day of March, a month that has lasted at least 1,283 days in fear, panic, and dread years. But here we are, and as April — what T.S. once called the cruelest month — approaches, we know we’re in for a far longer, harder, and more unimaginable

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

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