When you receive a “Listenback” from a critique on your work, what can you do next?
Use the feedback you’ve received to set up exercises to try things out.
Use this releasing question: What other poems are inside this poem?
Editing and re-writing are like sculpting.
Following a major stroke in 2001 up until the last few weeks before my mother’s death in 2006, we were able to care for my mother at home. Many families would not have made this choice or had the resources to carry out this choice. My father, supported by a strong family team, was my…
I can’t get you out of my head…”Going out of my head….over you.” Wily words, I’ve been writing you in my head, what good does that do? If you’ve been trotting around with a head full of words and wondering how to transfer these onto paper, here are a few tips. Good work habits help…
In honor of the combination of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day week, I’m running a “Black Valentine” series to profile vibrant Black couples and individuals I’ve met in St. Louis. I met Linda and her husband Charles at a Kwanzaa celebration where she was showing her art. Since then, we’ve met several times in…
Last year I met Eamon Grennan’s poetry through the Lannan Literary videos, a marvelous resource that deserves a post of its own. Eamon Grennan quickly became one of my favorite poets. Former U. S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins says of Grennan: Few poets are as generous as Eamon Grennan in the sheer volume of delight…
Algebra has a poetry of its own. Poetry has an algebra of its own. 1) How is poetry like an algebra equation? 2) What is the ration and proportion of poetry? 3) What is your definition of “earned abstraction”? How does a poem earn the use of abstract concepts and words?
We can dialogue with objects and use them as our muses in learning more about place and ourselves in relationship to place. Several presenters at the Story Circles Network “Land Full of Stories” conference brought objects with them as prompts. In one workshop I attended the objects were displayed on top of a table. I…