- What the Poet Must Answer for is the Un-Poetic Poetry in Person is a rare gem that could easily be overlooked. Alexander Neubauer has carefully edited together old school cassette tape recordings of in-classroom conversations between the legendary Pearl London and a long list of poetry super-stars. Just some of these poets include: Robert Pinksy, Lucille Clifton, Edward Hirsch, and Muriel Rukeyser. Poetry in Person is next-level […]
- AWP16 Offsite: All the Parties I’m Crashing This will be my first year going to AWP, and I’m sufficiently stoked that all of my writerly people are descending on Los Angeles. For the uninitiated, AWP is the mega-glorious conference for North American publishers, writers, and writing programs. There are far (far, far, far) more impeccable readings and parties to go to than is humanly […]
- Condensed Poetry Reviews in 50 Words (Yes, exactly 50 words.) Since my foray (read: baptism by full immmersion) back into poetry, I have been reading furiously. The last nine months I’ve been submerged in language (by way of advanced conversation courses at the Italian Cultural Institute), re-learning Latin at home, and stacks of contemporary poetry. It is, assuredly, a vast luxury to be surrounded by […]
- Born in:on Blue In the last week or so, I have said to more than one person that my return to poetry makes me feel born again. I do not know how not to use religious language for this experience, but I do think that spirituality and language have the same geneologies. I’m talking goodnight ma- goodnight pa-goodnight […]
- There, and Back Again Travel always welcomes a reset for me. The new environs gives me a new headspace. It’s normally the seemingly mundane trips away from home where I find myself reorganizing the content with my mental / spiritual / technological borders. I’ve just returned from nearly a week in Indianapolis, and this trip was no different. I’m […]
- Metrical Poems are a Carnival Ride I have been reading Mary Oliver’s Rules for the Dance; I must say, I may not have appreciated it as much before, but how wonderful is the land of metrical poetry. I think the rules and boundary lines are particularly important in our post-post modern world of make-your-own-rules and free verse, and what have you. There […]
- Sometimes Writing is a Bridge Sometimes writing is a bridge to nowhere – it’s an end unto itself. It’s just pleasure for pleasure’s sake. Other times, writing is catharsis. I’ve started back with those “morning pages” — in which you write 3 full pages, by hand, and then stuff those pages into an envelope to rest. The hope is that […]
- Unfinished Post from December, Resuscitated from the Drafts Lately I’ve been thinking about how I was once a great deal more contemplative. Less extroverty, more introspective. Something shifted for me over the last five years. (For you Myers Briggs nerds, it was a gargantuan shift from INTP –> ENFP). I love going at full-speed, and trying to capitalize on as much fun as […]
- Beautiful Bear Brown; a Poem by Anna (in 2nd grade) My Eyes My eyes see my family so I can hug them tightly. I hate when my eyes get wet and watery it feels weird. When I close my eyes to sleep at night I start to think great thoughts. I like how my eyes see my beautiful house! My eyes are beautiful bear brown. […]
- May, I See You
- Finding Solitude in the City; or, John Keats’ first published Piece O Solitude (1816) O SOLITUDE! If I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings; – climb with me the steep, Nature’s Observatory – whence the dell, Its flowery slopes – its rivers crystal swell, May seem a span: let me thy vigils keep ‘Mongst boughs pavilioned; where […]
- Três coisas; three things. Notes to Self. 1. Restart the call for impromptu poetry, as you once did. Maybe some haikus? Haikus are fun. Haikus are vastly underappreciated (at least in the West.) Does anyone write poetry for sport anymore? 2. Create an epic book queue list, since you are always in the middle of four score and seven […]