Elizabeth Howard

Elizabeth writes literary non-fiction, haiku, cultural rants, and Demand Poetry in order to forward the cause of beautiful writing. She calls London, Kansas City, and Iowa home.

Sunny Surprise: Going Back in Time to 2012

Summer Rocks!!

(This post is a part of the #reverb16… what’s that? Check it out!) The prompt for today’s #reverb16 calls for me to channel the warmth of the tropics (despite our New England locale). Prompt #6: Sunny Surprises. Most of North America starts to get frosty and cold this time of year. If you had an unusually warm…

Holidays: Just Not That Into You (This Year)

(This post is a part of the #reverb16… what’s that? Check it out!) I made my way back to my blog by way of #reverb16… such a relief. I’ll probably backtrack to make-up for the first four days I missed, but hey… FIVE is my lucky number, so why not start with today? Moving right…

About that goat farm…

Goat at Beltane Farm

If you think about it, you and me “regular” people rely heavily on the super-bravery of other seemingly-average folks. I call these people “small business superheroes.” In the town where we live, a new little brewery, Fairfield Craft Ales, just opened. It’s literally down the block from also-break-now-behemoth Two Roads Brewing Company. Colin and I went…

My (Internal) Midwestern Landscape

Midwestern Thunderstorm

Here is the look of the Midwest in a summer storm. To me, this landscape is not only the most familiar, it is the most comforting. How can a sky look so forbidding — so menacing and beautiful — but we are not allowed to do so? I was 14 and in my first year…

It’s good to hug a person

Ten years ago I lived on Delaware Road in London. Colin had gotten himself half-addicted to internet poker (mostly because he understood the algorithms) and I, in an attempt to connect with him in on his online poker island, suggested writing a couple’s poker blog. It was adorable… called “Poker Sweet Home: Married to the Flop”. It…

The Hard Way

Dog in a Sunbeam

We’ve got two lives: one we’re given and the other one we make, And the world won’t stop, and actions speak louder Listen to your heart, and your heart might say Everything we got, we got the hard way.  –“The Hard Way” Mary Chapin Carpenter Chapin’s song “The Hard Way” was released on the album “Come…

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

eternal sunshine

I was visited by an old friend in my dream. In the dream, he was as physically real as I am right now. The scruff on his face. The sound of his voice. Even while he and I talked, I knew it was a dream. I knew this truth: in a few minutes, he will…

Some Trouble

Lately I’ve been having some trouble writing. Particularly here on my blog. I suppose I have blog writing block. I am going to write about that today, to pass through it a bit. Feel free to skim or skip over this post if that isn’t your thing. The trouble with blog writing block is the…

What Writing Looks Like

The Writers Room NYC

What Writing Looks LikeThere’s a romance to the idea of writing. When you tell someone you are a writer, they are often all like “ooohhh whoa soooo cool!” Why is that? Well it’s pretty much because READING is awesome. It’s hellaciously awesome, the single best thing in the wide world to do with any amount…

Changing My Mind

Why I Changed My Mind and Took the PillsWhen I got to the point where I really truly thought “hey yeah… maybe I should take pills for depression,” I felt a lot of things. Failure Yep. I failed. I just could not “get over” my excess “emotionalness.” Here, there and everywhere I went, feeling anxious…

Hypnotized by the Mundane

Wild and precious life Mary Oliver

Life is wild. Though… It is sometimes hard to see it. Especially since life can masquerade as being quite mundane. Get up. Go to work. Go to bed. Go to work again. Make food. Eat food. Wash dishes. Make food again. Laundry. Laundry. Laundry. Even the most thrilling parts of life – like taking a…

On 45 Years of Friends

JD and Isaiah working men

For 45 years, I have been a friend and had many friends. Even after all this time, I am surprised by all the wonderfulness that makes being a friend new all the time. All Kinds of Friends I have friends I have never met in person. I have friends who are old lovers. I am amazed…

I’ll always remember you 2014

Sparkler meaning of auld lang syne

My mother was not sentimental. She saw the world in a very pragmatic way. If you were not feeling happy, well… just cheer up. If you were feeling ill… well, wait awhile. Things were bound to change. The Meaning of Auld Lang Syne I wished I’d asked my mom more questions about her own level…

The Sound of One Voice Shouting in the Woods

 What is the sound of your own voice? — I have this innate impulse to apologize. This is not a permanent disposition by any means. I just happen to be “going through something” at the moment, and I feel exceptionally large and bulky: a bit like a Macy’s Day Parade balloon trying to navigate through…

Into the Zone – #reverb14, Day 4

Creativity is Subtraction art by Austin Kleon on Brain Pickings by Maria Popova

We are all lightning rods, conduits for that which the Universe wants born into this world. What energies did you channel this year? — While day 2’s post I sang my song of multitudinous life, there’s a hidden secret to what drives my writing. When I am writing, I am “in the zone.” It is…