Articles written by Loretta Murphy-Birster

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About me - Loretta Murphy-Birster

Loretta Murphy-Birster has been a writer since the age of 8 when she wrote a full length story about a black stallion named Lightening long hand on a yellow legal pad. After a 30 year nursing career (achieving both a bachelor's and a master's degree) and

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Arts & Humanities > Poets & Poetry Is it better to write a poem based on experience or based on opinion?: 2 of 69

Poetry is a funny quirk of literature. A poem must stand on its own as an individual work, certain in its uncertainty, quick-witted in its use of metaphor and language, and unique in the poet's style and grace. It must be different - ah yes, yet it must be the same. Everyone has an opinion. Like assumptions, opinions can oft...
Society & Lifestyle > Mythology & Folklore Why we grow out of believing in magic: 2 of 24

Why WE GROW OUT OF BELIEVING IN MAGIC Do we grow out of believing in magic? My favorite scene in Peter Pan, is when Peter asks the audience to help save Tinker Bell by believing in her magic. It is the quintesential moment of truth in theatre, a point of no return, when we must suspend our disbelief in order to stop Tink's l...
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: When you look at me: 23 of 268

WHEN YOU LOOK AT ME When you look at me Look deep inside You may be surprised At what you find... When you look within You might see the pain Behind my eyes fall Silent tears like rain When you look at me See what makes me whole Look with honesty You might see my soul Don't just look at me With sun-glassed eyes Superficialit...
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Separation: 20 of 198

SEPARATION We cannot live in this small place I need my room/I want my space We will never bridge this distance While you continue with such resistance You blame me and I blame you It is what unhappy couples do Guilt is wreathed around our heads It's all your fault I said/you said This I speak now without reservation Ahead l...
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Lipstick: 2 of 16

LIPSTICK It began with Eve's pucker Her lips stained with berries Today we glide on Raisin, Corvette red And glossy Hawaiian Punch Cherry O, what is life without its glamour? Or survival without its glimmer? Make it work all day, make it last all night We are naught without its shimmer Revlon, Bonnie Bell, Allmay Jane, Cover...
Hobbies & Games > Hobbies & Games (Other) An introduction to Renaissance Faires: 1 of 8

"Good Day, m'Lord and m'Lady. How fare thee?" It is very likely upon your arrival at your first Renaissance Faire, you may hear those very words. In dialect, of course. Dialect? Absolutely. At the Faire, it is not only what you say, but how you say it, that marks you as either a rookie, pro, or patron. I have been a Faire lo...
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Nighttime blues: 19 of 146

NIGHTTIME BLUES Baby, Baby, Baby I got them old Nighttime Blues The same ones I always get When I get started missin' you It's been a long cold lonely night, Babe That's why they call them the Nighttime Blues... I'm ok in the daytime When the sun is shinin' in the sky But when the moon and stars come out All I wanna do, Baby...
Health & Fitness > Allergies School districts should bar anyone from bringing peanut products to school: 6 of 43

School districts cannot, nor should they, bar anyone from bringing peanut products to school. A school is a replication of community - a small society within a larger one. Schools were developed to create good citizens who are able to learn to live and work within society for the good of the many. As a school nurse who works...
Arts & Humanities > Theater & Drama How to cry on cue: 1 of 7

HOW TO CRY ON CUE Crying, like laughing, is a spontaneous behavior precipitated by emotion. Emotions and their resultant behaviors cannot always be commanded either privately or public. They are no less difficult to produce on command as they are to stop once the floodgates open. How can the actor conjure them like...
Sciences > Psychology How to suppress bad thoughts: 3 of 20

How to suppress bad thoughts As a working therapist for 25 years, one of the hardest interventions to teach is how to control unwanted, or for the sake of a value judgement, "bad" thoughts. There are many articles and types of therapy tricks that deal with this issue. Much of a person's success or failure in controlling thei...