Tag: Environment

  • A Poet Learns…

    by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper (Arts Council of Greater New Haven) Jen Payne remembers the first one that she saw. And the one after that. And after that. Tiny, single-use dental flossers, discarded in parking lots, and beaches, and wooded hikes around her hometown of Branford. Each cast off in nature with no…

  • A Way with Words…

    By Pam Johnson, Senior Staff Writer, Shore Publishing No doubt about it, Jen Payne has a way with words. From her place among invitation-only Guilford Poets Guild to her newest book, Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind, the shoreline author and artist brings together words and images to champion the natural world and remind…

  • Finding Inspiration

    When I told a friend last spring that I was writing a poem a day for National Poetry Month, she asked me how I found the inspiration for 30 poems. “It’s like rummaging around in a junk drawer,” I told her. “You’re bound to put your hands on something!” And sure enough, in April, I…

  • Exploring Mindfulness

    I. A Meditation on Bugs I hadn’t walked five minutes up the trail before they ambushed me. A swarm of gnats dropped down in front of my face like a thin, black veil. Two flies laid claim to my ears—bzzzzzzzzzzzzzing in stereo. Their siege left me breathless—afraid to inhale. My swatting—swat, buzz, swat, buzz, swat,…

  • Ingram Publisher Selects…Evidence of Flossing

    Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind was featured in the January 2018 issue of INGRAM ADVANCE as part of their Publisher Selects section. Check it out!

  • The Importance of Retreat

    BUG OUT! That’s what they called it on the TV show M*A*S*H. The enemy is getting closer, someone yells “Bug Out!” and everyone, everywhere packs up everything and bolts! I use the same word, often, when it’s time to get away for a while. BUG OUT! You know that feeling, right? You’ve been working really…