Growing up a Jehovah's Witness, I didn't celebrate the holidays, large or small. Not celebrating Christmas always got the most attention, along with Halloween, largely because of the outward display, but we didn't observe the smaller ones either. But even though my relationship with my parents is rocky because I left the church, I still … Continue reading Early Mother’s Day Poem
I’ll Never Make This Mistake Again
Way back in March, I posted the reading list for my summer class in Contemporary American poetry. Right about now, I'm feeling like Gob Bluth--"I've made a terrible mistake." I included Billy Collins's Nine Horses for a couple of reasons. I'm focusing on the variety of voices in contemporary poetry, and while Collins's voice is … Continue reading I’ll Never Make This Mistake Again
Influences
So I'm paging through my contributor's copy of Measure and I come across this poem titled "Arrival" by Mike Carson. Now, I know nothing about Carson--never even heard of him before this poem, though he's been published in some fine journals--but I can tell you who he's been influenced by, just by reading these lines.The … Continue reading Influences
New Issue
And I'm in it! Alas, not online, or even on the cover, but I have two poems in the latest issue of Measure A Review of Formal Poetry, and I'm in among some heavy hitters as well. My contributions to the issue are "Unhealthy Sonnet" and "i sing of Brian, born of God." Interesting side … Continue reading New Issue
"The War Works Hard"
Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi woman poet whose collection, The War Works Hard, should be required reading for anyone looking to get a sense of political poetry today. Most of the poems in this collection were written between 1985 and 2004, and so they cover three wars--the Iran-Iraq War, and both US-Iraq wars, as well … Continue reading "The War Works Hard"
Once more into the breach
Ah, the never-ending pursuit of book publication. I sent the latest version of Everyday Te Deum to a contest yesterday, and the waiting game continues. There has to be a better way to do this than the current contest system.
Why do we read this poem?
For the last couple of weeks, I've been going through poems in dialogue with my 2nd year students--the post I did on Sir Robert Aytoun's version of "To His Coy Mistress" came out of that. Funny side note--one of my students for that class came across that post while googling for some information on that … Continue reading Why do we read this poem?
New poem
A week or so ago, I mentioned that I was working on one of the poem prompts that Robert Lee Brewer had set up on Poetic Asides, and that I might post it when I was done with it. Well, I can't say I think it's one of my best, but I'm as done with … Continue reading New poem
Happy Birthday, Christopher Smart
According to this, Christopher Smart was born on this day back in 1722. He's best known for his poem "Jubilate Agno," which is one crazy bit of poetry. The piece of it that's most often anthologized is often called "My Cat Jeoffrey," in which Smart finds God in everything Jeoffrey does.When I was working on … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Christopher Smart
Winter Bean
I took this while in Chicago over a year ago. That's what happens when you stick with film and are lose track of the film canister. I've got to make the move to digital.
Another Poem to Love 