Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

A writer takes a minute for a closer look

recent posts

  • 45 minutes

    That’s how much time I spent writing this story about the Eugene school district budget after a board meeting that ended at 9 p.m. My editor wanted the story by 10:30 p.m. After a couple of quick, post-meeting interviews and driving back to my place it was 9:45 p.m.

    I hit the send key at about 10:40, so in reality it took almost an hour.

    I think it is possible to be accurate and informative in that time frame, but I don’t think it’s possible to be thoughtful or graceful. So does the benefit of being first with the news and getting it out to the public fast outweigh the benefits of better crafting?

    I’ve been a reporter for a long long time and I’m still uncertain.

  • Corydalis lutea

    Oh, I so love this shade-loving perennial. I took this picture this morning and even in the depth of January, corydalis has one brave yellow blossom. In the summer it’s just covered with them. I don’t know why the deer have let it alone. They frequently go after a white-blossomed corydalis not three feet away from this one. I’ve heard th

    at corydalis doesn’t do well in pots, and it’s true that late in autumn, this gets a bit

    ratty. You have to cut it way back and then it comes on beautifully again. Its one of those freely self-sowing kind of perennials.

    one little bloom even in January

  • So darn daily

    I think Annie Dillard is speaking about the discipline of writing here, and perhaps about perseverance and yet she never says either word.

    “A work in progress quickly becomes feral. It reverts to a wild state overnight. It is barely domesticated, a mustang on which you one day fastened a halter, but which now you cannot catch. … You must visit it every day and reassert your mastery over it. If you skip a day, you are, quite rightly, afraid to open the door to its room.”

    from “The Writing Life,” 1989 hardcover edition, page 52