[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!
Melanie Faith
Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.
Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.
The Society of Professional Journalists
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.
Maxine Greene
Philosopher and Education Scholar
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Weekly Wide-Awake: A Renaissance of Wonder
I am waiting/ to get some intimations/ of immortality/ by recollecting my early childhood/ and I am waiting/ for the green mornings to come again/ youth’s dumb green fields come back again/ and I am waiting/ for some strains of unpremeditated art/ to shake my typewriter/ and I am waiting to write/ the great indelible poem/ and I am waiting/ for the last long careless rapture/ and I am perpetually waiting/ for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn/ to catch each other up at last/ and embrace/ and I am awaiting/ perpetually and forever/ a renaissance of wonder
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I have looked to poetry throughout my life. I have read it and been inspired. I have written it and been humbled. I have spoken it and soared. One of my favorite poets, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, passed recently. I started reading through his work again in memoriam. His poem, “I Am Waiting” speaks to these times. The poem’s refrain — a renaissance of wonder — is particularly important.
We are at a time when a renaissance of wonder must happen.
What would a renaissance of wonder look like? How could I participate, or even lead a renaissance of wonder? Why is wonder even important at all? The world needs wonder right now as balm for our universal grief. The world needs wonder right now to spark the divine in each of us. The world needs wonder right now to connect us with one another in the ways that only wonderful things can.
I have been thinking about wonder for a while. Read my thoughts on wonder and insignificance. Read my post “Wonder” on gratefulness.org.
Listen to Natalie Merchant’s song “Wonder” as a reminder of a somewhat simpler time.
About Katie
Born in Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
