Love @ MindSay

Susan Ashley Michael has completed a novel LOVE IN THE PIAZZA. She is also the author of TOYS IN THE SAND. She earned a B.A. in English and a Masters Degree. She studied at Oxford University, Cambridge University and Harvard University--where she took classes with Gregory Maguire, Katherine Paterson, Julius Lester, Tim O'Brien, and John Updike. At the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, she workshopped her novel LOVE IN THE PIAZZA with Amy Bloom, Michael Cunningham, Maria Flook, Margot Livesy, and Michael Klein. She also studied poetry with former Poets Laureate Robert Pinsky and Billy Collins, and Screenwriting with Dyann Rivkin. In 1989-1990 she served as a Commonwealth of Massachusetts Lucretia Crocker Fellow. She taught English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as well as "Edit Your Writing" at Southcoast Learning Center, New Bedford, MA.  Her novel has been edited by the distinguished free-lance editors and authors Joy Johannessen and Robert Michael. She has lived in Northampton and Dartmouth, MA; Sarasota, FL; Murfreesboro, TN; as well as Paris, Budapest, Prague, Torino and Venice. She is a member of H-Film, H-Italy, H-Travel, H-Art.



Susan Michael
114 Tambark Circle
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
email: leahcimsusan@yahoo.com
website: http://www.geocities.com/leahcimsusan/author.html

The dots above us stay steady
as your beauty rises and falls
with my ever going breaths.

I feel the weight of pure beauty
against my chest as a breeze flows
from the nearby water.

The sand is soft, yet unobtrusive,
the temperature is comfortable,
the breeze makes your warmth
more desirable.

Huddling close
on my back,
an angel has graced me.

She looks up from my chest
and smiles.

This must be it.
This must be the feeling I've longed for.

This must be what I've mistaken in the past
for something so opposite.


This is love.

~"Love"
~~Jake Allard

So I've been in a relationship for over a year.  I love my boyfriend and he's the best guy I've ever been with but sometimes I don't feel that chemisty and crazy lust. I know that lust fades and companionship endures but sometimes I wonder.  We're very serious and will probably be moving in together soon but sometimes I just get confused.  I'm at that age where marriage in inevitable and we've talked about marriage.  I don't know how to explain how I feel.  I guess I always feel restless after being with someone for awhile, even the one person I was completely in love with.  Sometimes that thought of getting married and having kids scares me and other times I welcome it with open arms.  All my friends are either married with kids or in a relationship.  I just sometimes wish I could go back to age 20.  I hate feeling and getting old, it's hard to explain....

I got a e-mail today from the parents of a great friend of mine. It made my heart and soul hurt. It informed me that my friend and her 8 yr. old daughter didn't survive the horrific earthquake in China. The worst in 3 decades.

I really don't know why I'm posting this. I'm not looking for comfort, I am quite calm with death in fact. But, of course I am sad and frustrated. I guess, if anything, I just wanted to ask that you please take a moment of silence in your busy lives for my friend. She was doing what she always wanted though. Teaching young children English.

Thanks, and as always, peace.