For a moment in our recent TweetSpeak Twitter poetry jam, it appeared that @sethhaines might divert the flow of words into a ramble about a two-foot-long earthworm. But the poets resisted, barely, and all we left was an earthworm memory.
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.
October Prompt: Glühwein Memories
Like the secret sauce of Christmas, some things are better left to simmer, and sweeten, and linger soft in the memory. Seth Haines has a prompt for poetry with your wine or beer memories.
This Week’s Top Ten Poetic Picks
Famous artwork as Halloween costumes, the future of the short storyteller, and a guy typing poetry on the street. All this and a little more in This Week’s Top Ten Poetic Picks.
Ordinary Genius: Rhythm, Rhyme and the Sonnet
Kim Addonizio says writing form poetry can teach you economy and structure and take you unexpected places. But what if you have no sense of rhythm? Can you still write a sonnet? LW Lindquist wraps up our Ordinary Genius book club this week with enough iambic pentameter to make you scream.
Sweeten the World with Poetry Words
Beginning November 1, a group of 100 bloggers (Facebookers, Tweeters) will be sweetening the world with poetry words. It’s simple. Once a month, for six months, they will: 1. share photo poetry quotes, with just 5 friends. Delivery is easy through our new WordCandy poetry-based app, via email, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest 2. post […]
Twitter Poetry: Of Shells, Fireworks, and Novellas
Glynn Young has five new poems from the recent Tweetspeak Twitter poetry jam, with prompts from the novella “The Novelist.”
The History of the World in Beer
From stubbies to longnecks and Sumerian fermentation to German purity laws, let Matthew Kreider take you through a whimsical, poetic history of civilization in a beer bottle.
This Week’s Top Ten Poetic Picks
A $130 million art heist, growing a beard like Walt Whitman, and Poe’s Raven teaches poetry at home. Seth Haines has this week’s Top Ten Poetic Picks.
5 Reasons Your Poems Get Rejected
A poem ought to be more than just a collection of assorted images. What is your poem doing? What does it add up to? How is it governed? • Five tips from the Indiana Review to help keep your next poem from rejection.
Ordinary Genius: Myths and Fairy Tales
Terrible things happen in fairy tales. Even in the watered-down Disney versions, stepmothers try to poison their stepdaughters, children are lost in the woods and captured to be eaten, young women are imprisoned in towers. LW Lindquist leads our latest book club discussion on Kim Addonizio’s Ordinary Genius.
Poetry at Work: The Doctor—William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was both a poet and a physician, and both were part of the same whole.
Workspace Poetry
Observe the space you work in. No matter how simple and plain or how complex and luxurious, it contains poetry. Can you find it?
Did Someone Say Twitter Poetry Party?
You heard right. It’s that time again. Tweetspeak will host a Twitter Poetry Party on Tuesday, October 9, from 9:30-10:30 p.m. EST. Wonder how these things work? @tspoetry will provide a prompt — could be a thought, a line of poetry, a short quote or even a headline. You write a line of poetry on Twitter […]
A Pencil for Emily—Near the Emily Dickinson House
I stopped recently at the home of Emily Dickinson, in Amherst, Mass., to make things right. And sweet baby irony—would you guess she stood me up?
Poetry at Work™
“Work” is a multifaceted concept and subject. It extends from the board room to the shop floor, from the Oval Office to the local school district, from the tractor-trailer truck on the interstate to the university classroom, from stage and screen to the hospital intensive care unit, from raising a child to burying a loved […]
Ordinary Genius: Entering Poetry
The other day I stumbled onto an old Google Talk conversation with a friend, from about a year ago. The conversation went something like this: Friend: I lurked at the Tweetspeak Twitter party last night. Me: I can’t do the Tweetspeak. Too confusing. Friend: I was lost. I’m too literal. Me: L.L. tagged me on […]
Tweetspeak Exclusive: Yet Another Emily Dickinson Daguerreotype Discovered
The recent discovery of a third daguerreotype of Victorian-era poet Emily Dickinson has historians scratching their heads.
Discovering Moons, Discovering Myself
I wanted to give you something of comfort: words like an armoire smelling of talc, lined with lace, concealing a ruby bracelet, tortoise shell comb. Words that melt on the tongue a communion wafer. wheaten and whispering of salvation… (from the poem “Why Write” by Judith Valente) I read Judith Valente’s Discovering Moons twice, once […]
September: Tea for Two (on Proper Sweet Tea)
Some define the boundaries of the American south by way of the Mason Dixon line. Others define its lines by allegiances during the War of Northern Aggression. Frankly, I find both such delineations to be crude and lacking in nuance. No, I do not ascribe to traditional notions of defining the South. Instead, I reckon its […]