Category: Poetry

Drum

A few of my poems appear in print this month.  Check out "Easy Chair" in 88 (their 5th one) and "Dream Manifesto" in the newest issue of Pleiades, if you get a chance.  The poems will be in the print versions of these publications, not on their web sites.

Published
Categorized as Poetry

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely

It’s a poem! It’s prose! It’s a new genre entirely in Claudia Rankine’s 4th book of poems, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (Graywolf 2004). This book is riveting, both in terms of its content and its hybrid form. Part cultural critique, part memoir, this volume provides a seamless marriage of the personal and the political.… Continue reading Don’t Let Me Be Lonely

Published
Categorized as Books, Poetry

In a Dark Time

Disappointed about the election results this week and still feeling it.  Here’s "In a Dark Time" by Roethke: In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood– A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live between the… Continue reading In a Dark Time

Open 5

Here are eleven new words for you to play with today. papaya clicks torso flipping lunch tear hum-colored pocket toothpick 12:40 poems If they capture your imagination, add your writing in the comments section below.

A Berryman House

Here’s my true confession for today. Way back when–almost 20 years ago–I admit that as a student I wrote some sonnets. That is what students do, right? Recently one called “A Berryman House” was published in an online journal. It’s strange to see your older work getting published. My friend Cynie Cory published American Girl… Continue reading A Berryman House

Look

Emily Dickinson starts one poem, “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose–/ A ribbon at a time–.” Probably for many of us, our visual perception of the world around us prevails over the other senses. At least it wouldn’t surprise me if that were true. I wonder if anyone remembers the Noon Quilt? I’m not… Continue reading Look

Artifacts

I think a big part of my motivation as a writer is that I love making things. Truth be told, I still dye Easter eggs every year (sometimes with a niece and nephew to legitimize the process, sometimes not), and it brings me joy. Artwork I’ve done at every age still hangs on the walls… Continue reading Artifacts

“blue: the sea, the sky, the unknown”

"blue: the sea, the sky, the unknown" a stone to pound open greenalmond husks — white inside the seed inside the seed finding the moon reflected in waves .. . another mystery: the deep bluesea made of clear water how our eyes create love by Meredith Stricker, from tenderness shore© Meredith Stricker

Published
Categorized as Books, Poetry

Green Lizard, Green Broom

In science they call it camouflage, the ability to blend into one’s surroundings. To make one’s body invisible and yet there, alive, breathing. I have an idea, a project du jour that goes like this. Let’s collect green poems. We’ll make a collage out of them. I will get us started with a little bit… Continue reading Green Lizard, Green Broom

Published
Categorized as Poetry

MoJo

Signifying in this instance: more on joy. This just in. The most recent online issue of the Mississippi Review is called The Happiness Issue. Jane Armstrong edits this edition. In her introduction, she confesses that she expected a very limited response. Instead she got inundated with poetry. When I posted the call for stories, essays,… Continue reading MoJo

Joy

Lucinda Williams does a great song called Joy. Do you know that one? This song, like most of Lucinda’s, is not gleeful. But she is a blues singer. One of my friends who teaches poetry workshops told me that he made an assignment once to a group of graduate students. Simply put, he asked everyone… Continue reading Joy

Pieces

Christa’s post has encouraged me to keep adding to my own story, so here’s a little more of it. After the 2 semesters of freshman English I was really at a loss. By hunting for orange spines or skinny books, I was often able to find some kind of poetry, but I didn’t know a… Continue reading Pieces