Nerissa Nields

Things Worth Paying Attention To

“Poetry is the history of emotions.” Someone, not me, said that. A poet writing 30 Poems in November named Julie Cavacco just sent me that quotation, and it raised the lid on the Pandora’s box of what is poetry, a question I don’t engage with unless someone pins me to the wall and asks me point blank. OR I’m pinned against the wall with a bad draft of a poem I’m in the middle of but can’t see a graceful way out of and wish that I’d started somewhere else.

On Choosing Disorientation

Sometimes getting lost takes us right where we need to be. “One of the beautiful things about art is the way that our practice can allow us to lift out…

On Navigating in Disorienting Times

This is a sermon I delivered at the West Cummington Church on Lay Sunday Feb 16, 2025 Right before the election of 2016, my parents sold their lovely Virginia property,…

Ellen Meeropol and The Democracy of Multiple Points of View

I love multiple points of view. That clash of perspectives is something I care about. I think it opens up dialogue and invites the reader in, especially if there’s a real conflict in viewpoints. So, where do you fit in this chorus of voices, each with a different perspective? It feels like a democratic way of writing a novel, right?

Of Course I Prayed for Kamala

And of course I know that God does not Keep a tally of the prayer-votesLike an old man scratching lines on the edge of a deskWith a pen knife Well, if…

A Trickster the Size of a Grain of Rice

This essay first appeared in my newsletter, so if you read it there, don’t bother to read this again! Also, thank you all so much for your kind words and…

England, Wales, Old-Fashioned Vacation Log

This trip should be called “Nothing Went According to Plan.”

All the best of our meticulous plans were laid to waste by a combination of Acts of God/Climate Change/Strep and exhaustion. Mostly to the good, I think. After all, it had been my goal to be in the moment, to refrain from thinking about work (which I did!), and to have a great time with my family. Below you will see in BOLD all the things we were supposed to do that we did not do.

Live to Work, or Work to Live?

I’m with my husband, daughter and son—my family—for a ten-day trip to England and Wales. As I write these words, I feel a lump in my throat. Lila is 18, and in late August, she’s off to college. Johnny, almost 16, also has his own busy happy life. It’s very likely that the four of us will never again travel as a contained unit. Tom and I seem to have done what we were supposed to do in that department—raised independent kids who are engaged in their own interesting lives, form successful relationships, seek our advice, but don’t cling. More to the immediate point: they don’t need us the way they used to, and they don’t like being dragged around any more than you or I. 

Adirondack Retreat June 23-25

The best place to write in the world! Writing Retreat in the Adirondack Mountains Hello, writers!I’ve been procrastinating sending this out because I’m in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign…