Poet, Writer, Instructor
"Take Your Pick" by John Frederick Peto, 1885 Does this sound familiar? You’re doing something boring and repetitive, maybe folding laundry, and an idea pops into your head. When this happens to me, I drop the shirt I was just hanging up, grab a pen, and write the idea down. I know this seems obvious;… Continue reading What happened when I stopped judging my ideas
I love being a poet. I love expressing myself in words. There’s nothing quite like that feeling when a poem begins to come together, the words and images connecting in moving and surprising ways. I happily devote innumerable hours to building an object from words, trying out various expressions, line breaks, and odd enjambments in… Continue reading Self-acceptance for Poets
In March, the editors of Eucalyptus Literary Journal interviewed me for their established writer feature. They asked if I had any advice for young writers, a question I get often and one I take seriously. I wanted to share something more relevant than “get yourself in a chair and just write,” or “write a thousand words a… Continue reading Advice for young writers
At the end of December, 2023, I wrote a blog post about some writing goals I’d set for myself: “I’m more interested in what’s to come, not what’s past. When I ask myself what I want to accomplish as a writer in 2024, the answers come back loud and clear. I want to take more risks in… Continue reading Back to Beginner’s Mind
I rarely watch football, but I did watch the Superbowl matchup between the 49ers and the Chiefs. It was truly a spectacle, surreal in its disorienting deluge of ads (Temu! RFK Jr.!), the odd synergy of Usher and Alicia Keys, the constant-instant replays, and cuts to Taylor Swift in bright red lipstick. As viewers witnessed… Continue reading Winners, Losers and Poets
It’s Tuesday, Day Four of the ice storm that’s paralyzed the Pacific Northwest. I haven’t left the house since Friday, except to tread very carefully on the three-inch thick layer of frozen snow in the backyard to feed my six hens. The hens, showing a level of intelligence hitherto undemonstrated, have refused to exit their… Continue reading Where Do Poems Come From?
Today I took some time to ponder the often mysterious process of publishing my work. Over the last five years, the poems in the list below stand out due to the number of rejections they received, from a low of nine to a high of twenty-one. After the Migraine languished under the weight of 9 rejections… Continue reading Statistics for poets, or fun with the spreadsheet
As a poet and writer, I’m always trying to figure out ways to encourage people to read poetry. With so many distractions, how do we create opportunities for poetry to reach more people? Put another way, how do we get more people to like poetry? According to a 2006 study funded by the Poetry Foundation and the National… Continue reading Poetry: the Sneak Attack
A woman sitting next to me at an editors’ lunch I attended BC (before Covid) asked if poetry was my day job. Without hesitating, I said yes. Later that day, however, I started to question my response. I define “day job” as work that pays the bills so a person can spend whatever remaining time… Continue reading Bread Labor: Poetry and the Day Job
My mother gave me a copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron in 1992, the year it came out and the year I turned 32. It’s safe to say that Cameron’s book was a factor in my decision to quit my high-tech job in Silicon Valley and return to school. It took eleven years, but I… Continue reading The Artist’s Way, Thirty Years Later