Tag Archives: the pit

Alaska Love Poem

In 1984, during my troubled early twenties, I fell in love with a friend of mine. This poem was written to her. But it’s especially a poem about how I came to love myself, & to give up my former self-hatred. Continue reading

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It’s all just an act… or maybe not

My last trip into the pit — my name for the worst form of depression/despair I sometimes go into — was in November & December 2007. Want to know what it feels like? I’ll try to explain. And also how I get out of it. Continue reading

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Night of the butcher knife

An excerpt from “Dream,” the fifth chapter of Mistress of Woodland, based on two actual experiences — including a depiction of that state of depression I call the pit. Continue reading

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Remembering Nicholas Hughes (1962–2009)

Nicholas Hughes: a wildlife biologist at University of Alaska Fairbanks who died by his own hand in March 2009. Something tells me his family, friends, colleagues, & partner saw him as something far more than one the headlines over the past week have painted him as — the putative victim of his mother’s “suicide gene.” His death was a tragedy, yes: but a tragedy because it was a loss of him & for all who knew him. And for many of those, like me, who didn’t. Continue reading

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Hiisi

(For the Scheherazade Project, on the theme of fear. Constructive criticism always welcome.) Last night I told Rozz, I’m not always at the edge of the pit, but I’m never far from it either. She said, That thing you call … Continue reading

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