True confession right off the bat: I have not written very many happy poems. But I really like the literary journal, Poemeleon, and when the call came for their upcoming issue with a theme of “Happy Poems” well I searched the archives and dug a few out. Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry was founded by Cati Porter in December of 2005
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I recently read Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó. Tuama, the host of the podcast of the same name. Tuama introduces each poem, then offers his thoughts on both the art and craft of what the poem and the poet is attempting to do in that particular poem and why. He offers insights on each poem’s use a particular form as well as metaphor, rhythm and repetition, recognizable patterns, and poetic devices.
I am a firm believer in the value of finding a poetry mentor, someone who will encourage and push you to the next necessary steps in finding your voice, in doing the creative work. When I first returned to writing poetry, way back in 2005 and 2006, I took a series of classes through an organization called Writers on the Net. I was incredibly lucky to stumble on an outstanding teacher, Bob Haynes and his courses, Daydreams I and Daydreams II. …
After the shock of the November 2016 presidential election in the United States, things got very real very fast. The following year it often felt like the rat-a-tat of explosions perhaps even rapid gunfire—the cruel and verging-on-fascists nonsense that the administration started to spew. It was hard not to have the edginess of politics creep into the writing of poems
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Qarrtsiluni published my poem, “The Winter I Went to Two Al-Anon Meetings, Realized I Didn’t Have What It Took to Love Your Version of Alcoholic” in their Imprisonment issue back in June 2011.
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Scene on Radio just concluded their latest and, once again, excellent sixth podcast series entitled Echoes of a Coup. I just finished listening to it today. In five outstanding, riveting, at times shocking and heartbreaking episodes, we as listeners learn of yet another pivotal historical event that has been consciously and deliberately erased—whitewashed is perhaps the better terms—from the annals of American history…
In August 2012, the “Women Writing Nature” issue of Sugar Mule published not one but four! of my poems: “Bringing in the Seeds”; “Keep Napa Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Free!”; “On the Rare Occasion of an Ice Storm in the Coast Range”; and my prose poem, “Empty Nest.” They made a PDF of this triple issue so you can download then read them all as well as the work by all the other amazing women who contributed…
Maybe it is a truism that all poets should at one point in their evolution as writers pen an ars poetica, a poem that explains or meditates on the art of poetry itself. Is this simply literary navel-gazing? An egocentric exercise in defending one’s own predilections, eccentricities, and writerly tics? Perhaps all of these questions could be answered with a resounding yes. But, for me, I still find value in attempting to wrestle with the “why” of poetry, the “how” of the poet herself. Even if the answers do and should evolve over time. …
A while back now—egad, ten years, February 2014!—I was invited to be the Writer in the House at the Oregon Writers Colony in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. Per their website, “Oregon Writers Colony founders built the organization from a small group of writers who wanted a writing retreat at the beach into a nonprofit organization that offers support, networking, and a retreat house for writers
Sometimes you hit the poetry acceptance jackpot. Curio Poetry took not one but three of my poems for publication in their second issue in January 2012: “Voyeur”; “Fifteen-Minute Family”; and “The Time of Small Despair.” And while these poems seems to be about different subjects…
