Poet, Writer, Instructor
I first encountered the term “the speaker,” in reference to poetry, at a graduate writing workshop. One of my fellow students said, “the speaker seems angry here” and “I’m not sure what the speaker means with this statement.” It took me a minute to realize that she meant the voice of the narrator in the poem, not its actual… Continue reading Excuse me, I’m speaking: the role of the speaker in poetry
I was rummaging around my kitchen the other day when an idea struck me: just like every pantry needs to be stocked with the basic foods most meals are built on, poets need a supply of staples they can use to create poetry. I thought it would be fun to compare food pantry staples to… Continue reading Poetry Staples
I believe in the magic of index cards. When I get stuck on a poem, essay or review, I will stop everything and revert to my trusty pack of unlined index cards. Just shuffling them for a few moments can give my brain the break it needs. Then I grab a pen and start writing things… Continue reading How I try to be a better writer
It wasn’t until I went to graduate school in my forties that I began to experiment with poetic forms. One of the things that previously turned me off to writing in forms was the practice of rhyming end lines. It’s hard to rhyme words in English; according to Flocabulary, “orange” is just one of a list… Continue reading To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme: Writing Formal Poetry
I dislike the word “hack.” It sounds so unpleasant, even violent. My dictionary defines it variously as “to cut with repeated, irregular blows,” “to kick the shins of (an opposing player) in rugby,” and “to make trite and commonplace by frequent and indiscriminate use.” Nevertheless, “hack” has acquired new meanings over the years, both positive… Continue reading Hacks for Writers: A Personal List
Mona Lisa is the most-viewed painting in the world. And by art, I mean visual art: paintings, sculpture, photographs, mixed-media, films, buildings, installations, even furniture. Writers need art as much as any other source of inspiration. Art objects are things, and as William Carlos William said, “no ideas but in things.” Art is evidence of… Continue reading Every Writer Needs Art
"My Bed" by Tracey Emin Tracey Emin has been pushing boundaries since she emerged as one of the Young British Artists of the early 1980s. Prolific and controversial, she’s never been reluctant to use her personal life as inspiration for her art. An article in the 11/3/23 New York Times Weekend Arts section reminded me of the time… Continue reading How a Photograph of Tracy Emin’s “My Bed” Inspired Me
with Help from Bill Knott I’ve been reading I Am Flying Into Myself, Selected Poems 1960-2014 by the “perpetually insolvent” poet Bill Knott. In his introduction, Thomas Lux describes Knott as a “quintessential, almost primal lyric poet, primal in the sense that his poems seem to emerge from his bone marrow as well as his heart and… Continue reading Write More Poems
When I was a graduate student at San Jose State University, I stumbled across a rolling cart (literally stumbled—I tripped over my own feet and almost fell) displaying the tempting label “Books $1 each.” That’s when I found 50 Contemporary Poets, the Creative Process, edited by Alberta T. Turner. In spite of its slightly sticky,… Continue reading Visualize the Reader—or Don’t
Rosa californica I was deep into W.S. Merwin’s last book, Garden Time, when I felt the urge to write a poem. Garden Time has a dreamy, disquieting quality; Merwin writes about the passage of time, about the mystery contained in calendar days, and about how he can clearly see his life coming to an end. In “The Scarab Questions,” he… Continue reading Embrace Influences