creativity – Catherine Hamrick

Considering a Communications Career? 10 Questions to Ask Yourself

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change quote by Stephen Hawking via catherinehamrick.com chamrickwriter with image of Milky Way

A student in communications asked the following question: What strategy would you recommend for someone trying to break into the communications industry? Communications is a broad field, so I certainly do not have all the answers. Instead, I suggested thinking through key questions. 1. Does “service” underscore your attitude? Communications […]

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

My Other Blog: Random Storyteller

The New Orange (on a False Fall Day)

In the dead of August, A few leaves yellow-scuttled yards Unready for rakes, autumn’s casual brush by— A 68-degree flirt with sweater weather after a fine rain. In a deeper South, the Amazon burned; The slideshow played, a frame or two, On a small screen, swiped by android thumbs Tracking the finer points of the […]

The Shadow of My Father’s Beard

It’s the small things, After a person is gone, That keep him alive, For a time, The things unnoticed Until they rise Out of memory’s grave. My father’s beard, Always a shadow, Even at 5 a.m., Briefly bristled my cheek, While my mother Lilted, “Rise and shine,” In the dark Of day number four […]

My Father on D-Day: Why Do You Ask This?

They made movies of our memories,

Of what they thought they were:

German mortar and exploding artillery,

The strewn wreckage

Of flipped, ripped jeeps,

Of wire,

Of bodies, whole, some with faces yet,

Of twitching pieces, arms here and legs flung there,

Of middle parts, spilling guts, oozing.

What was I thinking?

The sea foams, so does blood.

Then my hands did the thinking, and doing, on semi-automatic,

What the doctor ordered:

Stanch bleeding,

Apply dressings,

Sprinkle sulfa powder,

The lone wound antiseptic.

And dwindle the morphine—

On who has the best chance?

The hands became the machine

That patched the broken living and passed them to other hands

That stretchered them up the ramp.