I meant to stay on top of the writing rates for 2015 and made it, well, halfway thru the year in real time. What I find at the year’s end is I got published about 10% of what I start. Which is a good thing. I am to pursue fewer things more without giving up […]
Category archives: Poetics
Inner flame
Why do we do what we do? Why eschew one part? Write but not edit, or edit but not publish or publish but not promote, or promote but not edit, write but not think, socialize but not write, read but not submit? It all is part of the process. “The promotion side is not contrary […]
New mini chapbooks
Opening to curtains to 3 new mini chapbooks at the Ottawa small press fair at Jack Purcell tomorrow afternoon (or to a surprise 4th as well should the forces of gnomes and homes be with me). Alicia Cumming has a chapbook of women, mother/daughter, body image and finding one’s personal footing. Example excerpt: “suppressing, moulding,/unceasing […]
Explaining Poetry
Intro patter that is backstory not visible in the poem is one thing. Where you give away ending of the poem in the introduction thus undermining the effect is another. Here’s a third way prefaces to poems can harm the effectiveness of the reading: Some months ago a poet explained an lexicon of terms, not […]
Haiku World Forms
I made an infographic map of haiku and related forms. Some influenced haiku or were influenced by, some derived from, some share a common ancestor of ancient Chinese court poetry. It’s a projection map where haiku is large and central because it is a map of haiku. If tanka were the centre or concrete poetry […]