Creating a traditional ode allows the poet to use her outdoor voice. It is a profoundly public medium, daring to speak to and for everyone.
Poetry: Mirroring the Unseen
Both poems and mirrors “Tell all the Truth, ” as Emily Dickinson insisted, but they “tell it slant.” Angela Alaimo O’Donnell talks poetry and mirrors.
Haiku: Pierced by Beauty
Haiku forbids excess. The poet has 17 syllables (or fewer) in which to say, not the un-sayable, but what can be said. There is no room for explanation, only impression. Angela O’Donnell on the way haiku gives the fleet glimpse instead of exposition, a quick picture in place of a thousand words.
Make Time for Wine and Poetry
In the hands of the poets, wine is poetry and poetry is wine. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, together with wine and poetry, invites you to the Feast of Life.
Poet’s Penance (Part 2)
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell concludes the essay she began last week, seeking to answer the question, “What is a poet?“ My Many-Minded-Ness, or “One of These Things is Not Like the Other” Poets are many and multiple, each unique in his or her own peculiar ways. No two of them are alike—so much so that there […]
Poet’s Penance (Part 1)
Poet: Bless me, Father, for I am a poet, and I have no idea what that means. Priest: I absolve you from your sin. […]
My Life as a Cento
Cento (Lat. “patchwork”). A verse composition made up of lines selected from the work or works of some great poet(s) of the past. —The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics Like most poets, I have a notebook. Mine is a chunky tablet, 5×7 inches, with a large spiral binding and two thick boards that serve […]
The Rose Remembers
Human beings have long associated Roses with Remembrance.
Poet, Where Did You Get that Red?
What is red? Red is Miracle, talisman and charm.
My Last Villanelle
I admire a well-executed villanelle in the same way I admire a Baroque Tromp-l’oeil ceiling
Living By Heart Poems
I set myself the daily task of writing a poem each morning to my body.
By Heart: Because You Might Need It Like Marie Ponsot
When poet Marie Ponsot suffered a stroke at the age of 89, she lost all of her language.
What is Poetry: Falling in Love, 2
What is poetry? Any effort to define Poetry (with a capital “P”) in an exhaustive way is doomed to fall short. So why not offer a poet’s heresy.
What is Poetry: Falling in Love, 1
The first step towards falling in love, of course, is the cultivation of friendship. And so I have to convince my students that poetry—and the poets who write them—are friends worth getting to know.
Glass Slipper Sonnets
Does a writing a sonnet feel like an ill fit? This fun glass slipper essay will make it (a little) easier.