Photo Journey in Cancerworld, Pt. 1

I didn’t set out to create an album tracing the stops along the way of my experiences with ovarian cancer, but it seems I did document these first steps. One day I was the usual ebullient creature that I am. Then, BAM! I happened to notice in my bathroom mirror that something was amiss in

Summertime and the Listening Is Easy

Sit back, relax, and enjoy. Couldn’t be easier. My thanks to Joe Morrissey, Anne Morrissey (no relation), Craig Hardlow, Stephem Paskey, Duane Wilder, and Numero Uno for these tracks. I couldn’t do it without you! Find your fave!

Three from the Poetic Juggernaut

It’s highly unlikely you’ll recall I did an interview with poet Scott Ferry in November 2021. If you’d like to revisit: https://karlalinnmerrifeld.wordpress.com/2021/11/07/of-mr-rogers-and-venus-fly-traps-an-interview-with-scott-ferry/ (I hope you’ll forgive me, Scott, for tarrying so long! Something called Covid hit and my creative juices were pulled elsewhere.) At long last, it’s time to look at a trio of his

Once Upon a Once Upon Time

I was a goddess of love incarnate in full carnal mode (as you might have guessed from my most recent book review trio). Then I got slapped upside da face smartly and ended up in Urgent Care at 8 a.m. on 4/12 for what turned out to be an unrelated issue, albeit in the general

Lordamercy, Let There Be Music Redux

What? Another season turned? Already? I got that Tempus-Fugit feeling all over again. So, as an antidote, I am going to self-medicate with a lengthy, indulgent musical spree… …courtesy of friend Joe Morrissey, all-time Muses’ Refugia playlist contributor by track count, who curated this entire extravaganza, with me as back-up. It’s a dialogue between two

Our Bodies, Ourselves—Ours to (Re)Claim

Once upon a time in 1971 when many readers of The Muses’ Refugia were in college, a blockbuster book swept through society: Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and Judy Norsigian, which The New York Times years later acknowledged as a “book [that] changed lives for decades. As a college freshman, it

“It’s the end of the strain, it’s the joy in your heart”

As we navigate the waters of March and the month’s wild temperature swings, here’s yet another musical mosaic of artists and tastes. Nibble away; I hope you find a tune that fits into your own Spring soundtrack. My thanks to all the contributors: David Brucia, Anne Morrissey, Joe Craig, and Numero Uno. Gassho. Meanwhile, thank

A Very Mixed Bag of Books

A fantasy, a memoir, a poetry chapbook—maybe there’s one for you among this oddball gathering of literary pursuits! No room for comfort Dewi Hargreaves, a British author and illustrator, takes his imagination on a journey to post-apocalyptic northeast America (surprised me!) for this engaging fantasy dedicated to “the wanderers and the displaced.” In Eyes on

The Fluidity of Melodies

Meet singer-songwriter-musicians Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson, the dynamic duo otherwise known as Hungrytown. Never heard of them?  You are in for a gigantic treat. This husband and wife team from Vermont are a a good part traditional English folkies and another good part of old school Appalachians, sometimes, it’s been said, in the same

Side A: The Boomers are Bummed; Side B: Long Time Coming

I’m one of them, a latter-day hippie-boomer going down memory lane in a funk.  First Jeff Beck. Then David Crosby. Yeah, a one-two punch in the gut. I’ll admit, I wasn’t a big Beck fan back in my teeny-bopper days, but it was hard to escape the Yardbirds in the late 60s when the “British