“Memory, in short, is engraved not merely by the life we have led but by the life of the mind…by all the lives we so nearly led but missed by an inch, and—if we grant enough leeway to the imagination—by the lives of others, which can cut into ours every bit as sharply as our own experience.” – Anthony Lane, writing about W.G. Sebald in The New Yorker (May 29, 2000)
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Tag Archives: memory
This Day (Origami Boxes)
The day feels slow and languid and long and loud and like it is rushing by. The pressing weight of grief. Precise and heavy and yet simultaneously diffuse, and everywhere. And, outside, the sun shines. And on the radio: old … Continue reading
Remembering, 20 years gone
Lawrence O. Frye September 11, 1934 – July 4, 1994 from my father’s poem, “Raindrops” All this performed inland, in the heartland, … Continue reading
Posted in EXIT WOUND: Suicide is Not a Love Story, Grief & grieving, Memory, Suicide
Tagged grief, jahrzeit, memoir, memory, poetry, suicide
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Old Memories and New Stories
A new year, and there is much talk about resolutions and what lies ahead. I’ve been engaging in this looking forward too, aspiring and hoping for this or that to receive more time, energy, success…. But in the midst of … Continue reading
Posted in Grief & grieving, Memory, Suicide, War, Writing & Reading
Tagged André Aciman, dyslexia, Failure, memory, Neurodiversity, Philip Schultz, poetry, revising, Sholom Aleichem, veterans, writing
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Superstorm Sandy—grains of sand
Lately, I’ve been composing more blog posts while running by the East River than here in the tangible world of type and technology. Today, I want to try to bring them back together. This weekend I returned to the East … Continue reading
Posted in COUNTRIES OF LOST THINGS, Grief & grieving, Memory, Motherhood, Writing & Reading
Tagged 9/11, blackout, disaster, East River, eastern seaboard, electricity, Manhattan, memory, power, Sandy, superstorm
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Tarzan—in the jungle we call home
So, I’ve had a post half-ready to go for more than two weeks now. I don’t suffer from writer’s block; can’t even say I have its cousin, blog block. (I’ve written several posts in my head, in addition to the … Continue reading
Posted in Grief & grieving, Memory, Suicide
Tagged addiction, coffee, depression, drug abuse, grief, memory, New York City, prejudice, psychology, suicide
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Witness—the Holocaust, suicide, and memory (coincidence redux)
A few weeks ago, someone recommended the book Spectral Evidence to me, which, among other things, includes World War II photos from the Łódź Ghetto, the Nazis’ Jewish quarter in this major Polish city. I wrote the book title down … Continue reading
When you open a door—night visions with Kafka or Beckett
My older son started a new school in May. This was a difficult decision, changing schools so late in the year, but one we made quite deliberately in navigating the New York City school system and the emerging needs of … Continue reading
My Father’s Guns (part 4) – Final Installment
©2007, originally published in Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, Vol. 6, “My Father’s Guns,” by Kara Frye My Father’s Guns IV. Travel back. The early eighties: I might have been ten or eleven, and Dad had recently been … Continue reading
Mysteries of childhood—avid reader, cannot read
Here I am, back on blog, a worried mother twisting her memory to remember what happened when in her young son’s life. Where does the trail begin, if I want to understand what he is struggling with now? Words are … Continue reading
My Father’s Guns (part 3)
©2007, originally published in Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, Vol. 6, “My Father’s Guns,” by Kara Frye My Father’s Guns III. Stewart’s Gun Shop in Bloomington is on South Walnut, a side street perpendicular to central downtown. I’d … Continue reading
Posted in EXIT WOUND: Suicide is Not a Love Story, Memoir, Memory, Suicide
Tagged BATF, depression, divorce, father-daughter relationships, grief, gun laws, memoir, memory, suicide, suicide survivors, writing
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