Ask for help
Technical help is sometimes needed. A recent commenter (hi, Pearl!) asked this question: "Can word verification for comments be on the same page? A few times I push post and then close forgetting the next screen so comment doesn’t make it thru." I know just what Pearl means, I’m sure …
Poets take us deep inside aural clutter
Hey, I know the poet featured on today’s Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. Why, just a few days ago, he sat on my front porch in a green rocking chair talking about D. H. Lawrence, tree roots, kids, and a new story I’m writing about the Greensboro Massacre. Congratulations, Sebastian …
Poemapalooza 2007 all in one place
Someone asked if I had a compilation of all the poems posted in April for the National Poetry Month Poemapalooza here at 37days. No, and then yes. I didn’t have one, but I created one. In case you’d like it, it is here (PDF): 30 days of poems. Write a …
Poets teach us about please
Oh, my. I was all set to end the National Poetry Month Poemapalooza with my dear sweet Billy (I’ll bet you are surprised); he’s been waiting here, patiently, beside me. But as I prepared that post, an email from Carolyn arrived, bearing this poem, with this note: "I just had …
Poets take us on a journey
National Poetry Month is coming to an end. Our Poemapalooza will end tomorrow, the last guests leaving our party, continuing on their journey as are we all. Poet Mary Oliver prepares us for the ongoing journey, the one I’m already on, and you, too. Come, let’s rent a vintage Airstream …
Are you waving or drowning?
Sometimes we give the wrong signals, not the ones we intended, or they are misinterpreted, ignored, turned inside out into something else altogether. I’ve had this poem in my head for a long time. Waving or drowning? Waving – or drowning? Too far out? Not Waving but DrowningNobody heard him, …
Poems should always have birds in them
I went with my friend Donna to hear Mary Oliver read poetry a few weeks ago. It was the night Donna introduced me to a friend of hers who makes gorgeous felted textiles, the very friend who was wearing a felted scarf she had made, in just the right colors …
Cast yourself toward the outlet for someone
Sometimes it is life’s simplest of movements that provide our lessons, our poetry — if we are watching. The Space Heater On the then-below-zero day, it was on, near the patients’ chair, the old heater kept by the analyst’s couch, at the end, like the infant’s headstone that was added …
Poets (and dogs) show us what love is
Fetch Nothing is ever too hard for a dog,all big dumb happiness and effort.This one keeps swimming out into the icy water for a stick,he’d do it all day and all nightif you’d throw it that long,he’d do it till it killed him, then he’d diedripping and shining, a black …
Remember Philip
It’s been a year – already – since Philip died. It hardly seems possible. In memory of him this week, go out for a nice dinner. Then eat slowly and thank the chef.
