I found Paul Chowder at the Tip O’Neill building. He was in the passport office cajoling the bureaucrats into renewing his travel documents just days before his departure to Switzerland for some big international poetry doings because he didn’t realize he’d expired. I was there for my once-a-decade passport renewal even though I had no […]
The Anthologist: Pluck the Day
I scheduled a date with Paul Chowder on Friday. We were supposed to hang out and talk about Sara Teasdale. He’d been going on about how some poets spend too much time thinking about death, like going to a movie and just waiting for the credits, which my dad taught me are very interesting if you […]
The Anthologist: Conversation in a Laundromat
I moved upstairs to the kitchen to work. I don’t like the kitchen much. It reminds me of all the times I have to cook, and cooking is not something I enjoy. Sometimes when I cook, there’s a fire, and I’m not sure the fire extinguisher was recharged after the last one. It wasn’t my […]
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 Anthologist: Book Club Invitation
Paul Chowder is a lonely writer who would have an anthology of poetry to his credit, if he could just get the introduction written and submitted to his editor. It seems, however, that this self-proclaimed “study in failure” cannot. His longtime girlfriend has left him and he is alone in the barn, trying to write […]
The Artist’s Way: Conclusion
The Artist’s Way: If growth “is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, ” we don’t need to eat a whole carp in a day.
The Artist’s Way: Process
Says Cameron in The Artist’s Way, “creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment, we are timeless.”
The Artist’s Way: Risk
When my parents brought me to the emergency room for the second time in as many weeks, they worried that, even in the 1960s, my sudden susceptibility to injury might raise suspicions of mistreatment. I already wore Raggedy Ann-like black stitches on my face after a mishap involving a swivel chair, coffee table and locked […]
The Artist’s Way: Morning Pages
At the root of a successful recovery is the commitment to puncture our denial, to stop saying, “It’s okay” when in fact it’s something else. The morning pages press us to answer what else.
The Artist’s Way: Currents
She requires a choice with every chapter. Will I sit with the pelicans and snag the easy fish, or let the current take me clear to the ocean?
The Artist’s Way: Safety
One of our chief needs as creative beings is support. Unfortunately, this can be hard to come by.
By Any Other Name
My interest in roses took a turn three years ago, however, when Sharon and I lost our home to a wildfire on the outskirts of Santa Barbara and temporarily rented a place in town near the old mission.
A Simple Rhyme ‘Changed My Life’: Interview with Virginia Poet Laureate Kelly Cherry
Interview with Virginia poet laureate Kelly Cherry.
Journey into Poetry: Megan Willome
After my mom died, I thought I’d never write another poem. Enter Susan Wooldridge’s book Poemcrazy.
Rumors of Water: Time
What really happened on the golf course that fateful day? The things we cannot write about today, we will surely find we can write about tomorrow.
Image-ine: Roses
Can you find a poem in this photo? If I were to find one, it might be in those hands, the blue shadows, or the three roses.
Rumors of Water: A Small Audience
The key to getting published is to keep working with small audiences, while gradually making forays into slightly larger arenas.
Hard Candy, Like Poems
Poetry can be hard. Hard to read and hard to write. But this doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. And enlightening at the same time. Kind of like candy for the mind.
Rumors of Water: Play
With Spring coming into full bloom, I’m still doing all the same serious things I did all winter long. But I get up a little earlier and I read a poem (or two) every day.
Guy Kawasaki Says to Use Poetry in Business
Rhyming, according to Kawasaki, is serious business.