Words by Winter

Send us Fan Mail Remember when no one wore seatbelts? Remember when every bar and public place and airplane was filled with cigarette smoke? Remember when your gay friends couldn’t get married? Change comes tiny step by tiny step and then, all at once. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other th...

Send us Fan Mail You know the way it feels when you’re fired, or when you find out a bunch of friends were all at a celebration you weren’t invited to, or when someone you love breaks up with you?  Like, wait, I mattered that little to you? I'm nothing to you? Even, or especially, when you tried so hard. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Becau...

Send us Fan Mail The older I get, the softer I want to be. The judgment I carried around when I was young was mostly internal, but it was harsh. And what good did it do anyone? What good did it do me? Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music composed and performed b...

Send us Fan Mail Why is it that so many memories of freedom, of wildness, are from long ago? Does the world tell us to rein ourselves in, and do we listen, and learn, and obey? Thinking about this, I posed this question to listeners: “Tell me something you love, something you see as beautiful, or magical, or miraculous, about your own physical body, will you?” Words by Winter : Conversations, refl...

Send us Fan Mail One of my most precious friendships began with a single letter and turned into eighteen years of letters. Five years after Garvin's death, I still think about him every day.  Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through.  "My Father, Long Dead," by poet Eileen...

Send us Fan Mail The high school graduations of my children were a strange mix for me of pride and love and loss. Listeners wrote in about their feelings surrounding their own children's graduations, and their heartfelt responses make me feel less alone in the bittersweetness of the memories. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s roug...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to write for children in a collapsing world? Writer Marion Dane Bauer explores this question, and the roots of her own wonderment and awe, in a conversation with Alison. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Poet Sean Thomas Dougherty’s poem Why Bot...

Send us Fan Mail A listener named Ellen, originally from the U.S. but living in the Czech Republic, writes in to share what's on her mind and heart, thoughts and feelings so specific to this time but also so universal, Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. "If You Knew,&quo...

Send us Fan Mail A couple of weeks ago I asked readers to tell me what they were struggling with, and responses came rolling in. Then I asked them to tell me what they're thankful for, and the floodgates opened. Sorrow and thanks, in equal measure, both of which make me think of one of my favorite poems, by David Hernandez. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the pas...

Send us Fan Mail Do you ever wish you could go back in time? Undo things? Make someone's life better? Today I’m back in third grade, thinking about a boy I grew up with, a boy who sat a few desks away from me, a boy I was scared of my entire childhood. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each oth...

Send us Fan Mail Long ago, on a night full of stars, I was alone and terrified. My cell phone was in the back pocket of my jeans and I reached for it and punched in a number I had memorized, then sat with my heart pounding as someone picked up. Words by Winter : Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. ...