This past week a friend of mine invited me to go to Portland and write poetry. My mother was stable, my kiddo was home from camp and getting caught up on her on-line classes. My husband would have to do without me for only three days and two nights. We were staying at my friend’s […]
A friend was confiding in me about a situation in her life that deeply upsets her. She is a poet — a genius of a poet — so, while I tried to be a good listener and not jump in with personal advice, I asked her if she’s tried writing about it. “Not yet,” she […]
This morning I picked up Jane Kenyon’s Collected Poems and read for a long time before settling on this one: NOT WRITING A wasp rises to its papery nest under the eaves where it daubs at the gray shape, but seems unable to enter its own house. The title makes this poem what it is. (Imagine it as “Not […]
One of the strategies I use during the August Poetry Postcard Fest is to write out favorite poems of about that length by other poets. Despite having read and loved short forms — such as Haiku and Tanka — for many years, I still find it amazing that someone can pack so much into only […]