“Writing Dollars and Sense,” by Daniel Holland
Should I write a story
with big words that pays big money?
Or, should I write this story
that is worth only five cents
but makes sense to me?
Should I write a story
with big words that pays big money?
Or, should I write this story
that is worth only five cents
but makes sense to me?
Poet, essayist, translator, teacher. W. S. Di Piero says it best: “I’m not an intellectual poet. I write mostly out of nerve and instinct. It’s all a process of taking in the intensities of life and bringing them over into the intensities of words. I’ve believed from the beginning that poetry exists not to simplify…
While Arletta Dawdy researched her book HUACHUCA WOMAN, she read widely about the Mexican Revolution, visited Columbus, New Mexico and learned to admire Pancho Villa. Arletta says, “Many controversies whirled around the man, including tales of his sister’s fate and his response. Variously, we are told the hacendado came to claim her and Doroteo Arango…
Remember Arletta Dawdy’s poem “Clara’s Air” posted May 12, 13 and 14 in three parts? Here she is again with “The Apple Factory” which grew out of a conversation in the 1970s with an elderly neighbor as they stood in her kitchen window looking out on the apple orchard that backed both their homes. Both…
“Evergreen Heights,” has nurtured six generations since the 1860s. Five of these generations produced poets. My father is now compiling a family poetry anthology from the works of these five generations. STARLIGHT Stars wink high in the sky, as dawn draws on sun reaps the sky. When she is done colors blaze as she pulls…
The Story Circle Network, in cooperation with the Alkek Library’s Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University, is planning a weekend writing conference to mark the publication of What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest—Story Circle Network’s new anthology of writings by women celebrating their experiences in the landscapes of the Southwest. The…
In the early years of my relationship with Daniel–we were together for nine years–we went up North to a weekend Sufi dance camp, invited by a friend. This is in fact, how we met. We met on Valentine’s Day in 1998 at Sandra Wade’s healing arts studio where Barbara Christwitz led circle dances. Daniel couldn’t…
Daniel, you strike to the heart of the quasi-professional writer’s dilemna. I’ve always chosen to write the story that makes sense to me. I believe it is possible to do both–make both sense and cents…it’s an acquired skill.