Kelly Tweeddale's Blog
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May.17.2013
I've written about training for a marathon and no matter how I try, I struggle at pacing myself. My body is geared to want to reach for the finish line. Lately, I've been nursing a chronic injury, an athletic weakness, and pace has suddenly become an afterthought; a symptom.
So in my...
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May.10.2013
Yesterday, I had a Laura Nyro lyric stuck in my head.
“I am a poet without a poem.” – From To a Child
Today, I inadvertently stumbled upon a breathtaking piece of history. In the 1920s and 30s, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was our version of an American Idol. She sold out 1600-...
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May.07.2013
In my current year-long challenge to write and submit, I decided to experiment with a variety of online forums that require application and acceptance. This is not a path to prosperity. For the most part, if upfront pay is offered it ranges between a whopping 1 to 1.5 cents per word and...
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Apr.26.2013
At the beginning of the year I vowed that I was going to make a commitment to writing and to putting myself out in the real publishing world. I made a goal of submitting an original piece, a query or synopsis to a publisher at least once a month. My objective was to move from self-...
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Apr.17.2013
I don’t even know where to begin. As a three-time Boston Marathon finisher, I feel such outrage, sadness, despair and disbelief. The only reason I wasn’t running Monday was due to last year’s record heat. It made it close to impossible to run a re-qualifying time. It was a brutal...
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Apr.13.2013
This morning I woke up determined to write a poem. Yesterday, I turned one year older and today I was determined to start anew. My poem was going to begin, “Now that I am fifty-three, I shall . . . “ or perhaps it was “Now that I am fifty-three, I shall not . . . “ Instead, I...
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Apr.12.2013
We called it “The Mountain” when in fact it was nothing more than a hill; a hill nestled between a suburban housing development, a golf course and the elementary and middle school we attended. It acted as the sledding hill in the winter, an exploratory terrain for the boys with their newly minted...
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Mar.21.2013
In honor of World Poetry Day and Malala's return to school.
Surrounded by menthat refuse to see womenBlind to our power.
(c) 2013 Kelly Tweeddale
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Mar.05.2013
Last July I wrote a blog post on pain as I was preparing for the never-to-be-run 2012 NYC Marathon. I wrote about physical pain while simultaneously spinning precarious plates of emotional turmoil. The writing was raw, but it ended with a suggestion that I adopt a personal anthem, something a...
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Feb.18.2013
I made a pact with myself at the beginning of the year that I would dedicate this year to moving from a writer with a tepid appetite for rejection to one that faces it and welcomes it with open arms. It’s not that I have a tall pile of rejection slips to hide behind. Rather, the thought...
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Feb.14.2013
When I first decided to take up running at the nubile age of 48, no one asked me what I was trying to prove. Running a mile or so a week with incremental increases didn’t raise any eyebrows nor did it interfere with much of anything else except my own illusion of fitness. Although I...
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Feb.08.2013
On Thursday evenings I teach a graduate-level course for those seeking their Masters of Arts Leadership. It is always a stressful traffic-filled commute from my workplace to campus, as well as having complications with another class using the classroom up until our official start time....
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Feb.03.2013
Every once in awhile I wonder what it would feel like to live my life by putting everything in its proper place. Junk mail in the garbage, bills to be paid in tidy file folders or Martha-Stewart-obsessed organizing bins, dirty clothes in the hamper, bath towels folded and stacked so that they...
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Jan.31.2013
This year my sister and I have an unspoken pact: to live more fully and spontaneously. Following years of child-rearing and career-building, we both are in desperate need of an occasional escape. So when I decided to take a much needed day off, we scheduled a sister date and decided to grab our...
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Jan.29.2013
I spent captured bits and pieces of my weekend working on two poems that will eventually be part of a collection inspired by platitudes, celebrations and other escapes. I would like to think I put the finishing touches on a poem called “Only the Brave Deserve the Fair,” a poem inspired by...
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About Kelly
Kelly Hargrave Tweeddale was born on April 12, 1960, exactly 100 years after the beginning of the Civil War. It is no wonder that her mother scrawled next to her name in her baby book "warrior" and she has lived up to the name by surviving many a battle and...
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Kelly’s Favorite Books
Whatever I am currently reading.