Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Kristin Berkey-Abbott
A poet, a scholar, a teacher, a wanna-be mystic--always wrestling with the temptation to run away to join an intentional community--but would it be contemplative? social justice oriented? creative? in the mountains? in the inner city?--may as well stay planted and wrestle with these tensions and contradictions here, at the edge of America.
August 2026
September 2026
Top Words
- farewell
- poem
- satisfying
- sunday
- quilting
- labor
- woes
- quilt
- camp
- days
All posts (27)
It has been an intense few weeks, book-ended by Quilt Camp on one end and Crafts for Christmas on the other end. I made a quick trip to Columbia, SC for an overnight last Wednesday; I am trying to go once a month to see my grad school friend who had the catastrophic stroke 2 years ago.I've had tech woes with the...
Labor Day brings to mind many things for me. I think of the ways this holiday has changed. In my lifetime, Labor Day signaled a coming end to the intense heat, with only a week or two left. But in our time of planetary climate upheaval, no longer.Labor Day has also signaled fashion choices, like when to put away...
Yesterday was a frustrating day. On Thursday, I had trouble with the authenticator app that I have to use to get access to my online classes. On Friday, I had the same trouble, so I thought I'd call the help desk early in the morning before everyone else tried to call. So, at 4 a.m., I called, and at 5:20, I was...
We've had a major internet outage in my service area overnight, so let me make a quick blog post in case it flickers out again.On Monday, I made this Facebook post, which has gotten more likes than almost any other Facebook post I've ever made:My department chair just said I am the Swiss Army knife of the...
I was sad to hear of the death of Wendell Berry on Monday. But why should I be sad? He was 92 and had lived a good life, mostly on his own terms, from what I could see. But the death felt like "one of the greats has left us" moments. I remember reading him in college, so his writing has been with me a long time.Back...
Here we are on the last day of August. As always, the month has zoomed by, and I feel a looming despair that I didn't get any writing done. But let me do a more honest record keeping of my poetry writing:-- 5 rough drafts of varying degrees of completeness.-- 2 rough drafts revised to intermediate status.-- One of...
At one point yesterday evening, as I began to despair at ever getting my huge quilt done, I thought of my grandmother. When I asked her to teach me to quilt, she snorted and said, "Why would you want to quilt when you can just go to Wal-Mart and buy a blanket for six dollars?"That price tells you how long ago it...
I've spent part of the summer finishing the process of putting together the quilt top for the quilt I hoped to be assembling during Summer 2026 Quilt Camp at Lutheridge. We've also been going back and forth on the size of the bed we plan to have once we move into the Spartanburg fixer-upper house we bought back in...
And now, a day after Dolly Parton's death, comes news of the death of Tim Curry. Like so many, my earliest memories of Tim Curry are as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I didn't see that movie until my sophomore year of college, but I was aware of it in high school.I was a drama club kid, so of...
I'm as sad as everyone about the death of Dolly Parton. Let me record a few thoughts:--I'm glad that I was a child in the 70's, that my mom listened to A.M. radio, which meant I heard all kinds of music, including Dolly Parton's songs, both old and new. The radio stations of my childhood played anything, so you...
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