I sit with a poem like it was a crossword puzzle finding the words that work together counting the letters filling in blanks building momentum for the bigger picture resisting the urge to quit I work on a poem like it was a crossword puzzle part hard struggle part my kind of fun erasing mistakes […]
________Shadow Shot Sunday
1. Poetry lives outside the confines of academic convention or techno-logic mass-production. It’s not house-broken. 2. I recently did one better than William Stafford. He encouraged his students to write a poem a day, and when they thought it would be too much work, he suggested that they “lower their standards.” Saturday night, I decided […]
_____Our World Tuesday / Wordless Wednesday
This is what happens when I don’t take pictures. I only have the briefest snapshot to tell the story, in this case, of a post wedding ceremony community party. I didn’t take a picture of the homemade blueberry pie or the wedding cakes display, the new babies, old friends, the dancing, the bride and groom […]
Can you write a poem on a deadline? Like your life depended on it? In a noisy café? Like William Stafford? In every room in the house? There is no instruction No paycheck or pink slip There is no score and no demand for it Can you write on a whim? A dare? A blind […]
This is how we celebrate Liam’s 7th birthday. Bryce made Liam an axe in Hopa’s woodshop and put a bow on it. He got all the Frog and Toad stories that Arnold Lobel ever wrote. And the CD! I think his favorite present was his little Simon, an electronic memory game. I forgot to […]
Skywatch Friday
1. Seen somewhere on Facebook- Halloween costume idea: Quinton Tarantina Turner 2. Sesame Street is to kids what Saturday Night Live is to grownups, and they both are iconic shows that have lasted for more than 40 years. 3. Eating at my favorite restaurant on the chef’s day off is like seeing Graham Nash without […]
It’s that time of year. I’m glad I had some zinnia to offer as a pit stop for the monarchs on migration. Only two stopped in my yard. And look at the damage the preying mantis has done to my pepper plant. I didn’t notice it in the garden but did when I looked at […]
We put on a good show. Maybe we should take it on the road, or at least do a couple of more local readings. Chelsea Adams and I were featured poets on Sunday at the New River Community College in Dublin, a presentation of the NRCC Library. In was a coffee house setting. After our […]
Caught in a web like a Nowhere Man hanging in a nowhere land An inchworm twisting in the breeze swings in mid-air like a daredevil trapeze Should we snatch it from its fate Protect it from its fall Relocate it to safety on the ground? It made it to the tree top inching its way […]
