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Lisa Poulson
Lisa Poulson

98 Followers

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Published in

P.S. I Love You

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Surprised by the Joy of White Hair

How changing one thing changed everything — I hate the camera. When that lens is invading and documenting me, my head is so full of what I am not that it’s impossible to relax into what I am. Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, where ideal female beauty was omnipresent, taught me to evaluate my…

Self

4 min read

Surprised by the Joy of White Hair
Surprised by the Joy of White Hair
Self

4 min read


Nov 3, 2021

It feels beautiful to slip the trap

Who doesn’t love being carried away by a story? Cloud Cuckoo Land, which instantly became one of my favorite novels when I read it in October, is a layered, moving story about the power of stories: “ ‘I know why those librarians read the old stories to you,’ Rex says…

Writing

2 min read

It feels beautiful to slip the trap
It feels beautiful to slip the trap
Writing

2 min read


Sep 1, 2021

Finding my, uh, voice as a writer

Is it a smashed-up Barbie doll head?? I have mixed feelings about writing fiction. First, I have no formal training, other than a class I took as an undergraduate in college 40 years ago. Second, I understand non-fiction, which is journalism adjacent. Having been a PR person for decades, I…

Writing

3 min read

Finding my, uh, voice as a writer
Finding my, uh, voice as a writer
Writing

3 min read


Jul 8, 2021

Where? Why? How? When?

Here’s a long, circuitous story with no clear ending. It’s about becoming “a writer.” In 2008, one of my BFFs took me for a birthday tarot reading with a guy named Howard, who studied the cards he laid out for me and said, “Your job is soul-destroying.” “Why yes, Howard,”…

Goals

2 min read

Where? Why? How? When?
Where? Why? How? When?
Goals

2 min read


May 5, 2021

Goodbye Comfort Zone!

Here’s to walking toward what scares you . . . “You should rewrite this as a novel.” That’s what my father-in-law said when he read a very early draft of my memoir in 2009. I dismissed that idea out of hand, because fiction — that realm of Toni Morrison and…

Writing

3 min read

Goodbye Comfort Zone!
Goodbye Comfort Zone!
Writing

3 min read


Feb 3, 2021

There’s power in that little tube

Sometimes, lipstick is everything A few weeks ago I was sitting in the foggy morning light in my pale blue bedroom, meditating, when a declaration bubbled into my head. ‘I’m going to wear red lipstick every day when the pandemic is over.’ ‘Yes,’ I thought, even though one is not…

Hope

3 min read

There’s power in that little tube
There’s power in that little tube
Hope

3 min read


Jan 6, 2021

Beauty is about so much more than beauty

There’s a dangerous power in surfaces . . . Well here we are — it’s 2021. To borrow from the guys at Pod Save America, I feel nauseously optimistic. There are so many daunting challenges to solve, and I believe we can face them. In 2018, at the United State…

Self

2 min read

Beauty is about so much more than beauty
Beauty is about so much more than beauty
Self

2 min read


Published in

P.S. I Love You

·Oct 13, 2020

Just Another Saturday Morning in Pandemic Life

Windows, nails, and resilience — I climb the stepladder and manage to unhook the window frame’s dual locks, the pads of my thumbs turning white with effort. When I pull the window out of its casing there’s a huff of dust, a squeal of rubber, a rush of air, a broken spider web glinting against…

Self

4 min read

Just Another Saturday Morning in Pandemic Life
Just Another Saturday Morning in Pandemic Life
Self

4 min read


Published in

P.S. I Love You

·Jul 7, 2020

A Grasshopper (Like Me) Grows Up

Sometimes it takes a pandemic to learn how to take care of yourself — I woke up the day before San Francisco’s lockdown flooded with cold panic. Fifty-seven, single and self-employed as a communications coach, ninety percent of my upcoming engagements had been canceled. What was coming next?? I heard a sing-song voice ringing in my head. “La cigale ayant chanté tout l’été …

Lockdown

3 min read

A Grasshopper (Like Me) Grows Up
A Grasshopper (Like Me) Grows Up
Lockdown

3 min read


Published in

Be Yourself

·Apr 21, 2020

Vivisection

The revelation’s always on the other side of the terror! I’m nineteen years old. I’m wearing a floral dress, singing How Beautiful Are the Feet from Handel’s Messiah for my church congregation in Los Angeles on Easter Sunday. This aria is high, it’s slow, it requires precision and purity. There’s…

Growth

4 min read

Vivisection
Vivisection
Growth

4 min read

Lisa Poulson

Lisa Poulson

98 Followers

An essayist exploring the complex beauty of female power (lisapoulson.com), a communications coach (poseycorp.com) and a San Franciscan.

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