In workshopping poems (which I’ve done on and off for over 25 years now) there are rules of thumb which make for good habits, for example: consistent capitalization [which I will always be dinged for], standard spelling [I mix U.S. and British, sometimes in the same poem for the same word], losing the pattern [starting […]
Category archives: Poetics
What is Being Said
In Rae Armantrout’s 2007 book, Collected Prose she considers linear vs. lateral thinking as ways of expressing. In a quote of that she says, “When people ask me what I mean in a poem or whether I mean it, I’m stymied. I mean/don’t mean. I mean that experience is double, that doubleness is the essence […]
Working the line
The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival tweeted this: “Because I’m Italian, you’ll notice my lines are pretty long – I don’t take a breath that often.” -Maria Mazziotti Gillan. How much of poetry is breathing? What you train your body to do, your mind has to work with as materials. Poetry has good bones but […]
Rocking the Page
The BC Learning Network made segments on poets called Rocking the Page where they are reading poems and sharing a secret. I’m not sure if I found them all yet, but there are these: Here’s one by David W. McFadden. Sandra Ridley Stuart Ross Alice Burdick Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang and Wayne Arthurson
Make Poem, Make Self, Make World
So long as someone is writing, do we need to write? There is more being produced in a year in English poetry alone that one could consume in a lifetime, if one could source it all. If it were about creating to fill a niche that would be a relevant concern but it is also […]