(For my journalist readers: This is not written with newspaper concision or precision. I work on making my poems as concise as possible, but I've allowed myself a loose, casual structure for this blog.)

 

Dec 2, 2023 — I've switched from posting links to posting the poems themselves on the Published Poems Page. I've got several more out now. I'll update as I can.

 

Nov 17, 2023 — I recently discovered the poet Carolyn Forché, and man, what an experience. I had not heard of her before, and I saw her by accident on a recent online seminar. Her poems, what she calls Poetry of Witness, are beautiful — and devastating. She uses language that seems simple, but carries tons of intention underneath. I started with The Country Between Us, which deals with her time in El Salvador during the war. I just finished reading In the Lateness of the World, and I can't recommend her highly enough. You've got to read her poems. I don't know how I missed reading her before now.

 

Nov 16, 2022 — We had to say goodbye to Chance, our 17+ year old dachshund, yesterday. In human years, that would make Chance over 84 years old. It's too quiet around here without him. I miss you Chance. We had a great run together, boy. That's him on the right, with his favorite activity: gnawing at something. That, chasing tennis balls, and eating. Not really sure what order.

Chance had health problems for a long time, including parathyroid condition, heart murmur, and bladder stones. With all of that, it's really a wonder he lived to be this old. But that doesn't take the sting out of losing him. Today I was giving Izzy, other dachshund who's 11 herself, a belly rub, which is her favorite. She'll lie like that for hours if I keep petting her. I told her I missed her brother. She then righted herself (in the middle of petting!) and climbed into my lap to lick my nose. I think she misses him, too. Maybe even his feline sisters miss him some ...

I love you and miss you, Chancifer. (Leila says that's a combo of Chance and Lucifer, for his demonic moments.)

 

Sept 28, 2022 — I've been spending a lot of time on reading and writing poems lately, and I've neglected this blog. So now I'll get back to it.

Earlier, I posted a link to "Watching Ida Barnstorm the South," which appeared in Grey Sparrow Journal's January 2022 issue. I've since had six poems accepted. "El Paso Dream" will be in the January 2023 issue of Stonecoast Review. Home Planet News has accepted five other poems for Issue 10, which is expected to be published in mid-November 2022. I'll have links to both on my "Published Poems" page once they are up.

I've been working a lot with the sonics of poetry lately, making a point of reading every poem aloud at least a few times, sometimes several, to hear what's happening. I keep thinking of one of my college text books, Laurence Perrine's "Sound and Sense," which I can't seem to find my copy of just now. (It's gotta be around here somewhere!) I think the title comes from a line in Pope's "An Essay on Criticism." It talks about how sound should follow a poem's meaning and help create a mood, and how the two should work together. I think by now I do some of that subconsciously, but on "Heart of Stars," which is one of the poems accepted by Home Planet News' next issue, I was very conscious of working to find the right sounds to enhance the effect of the subject matter. What do you think? This also true of "El Paso Dream." I think making this part of my writing and revising process has helped strengthen some of my poems.

 

March 2, 2022 — At top right is Daenerys Stormborn, First of Her Name, Daughter of Dragons. She keeps me sane when the distractions of life threaten to overwhelm me. She doesn't so much inspire me as give me the peace to keep writing. It seemed appropriate that she kick off my ramblings on writing. There is no structured narrative here, just thoughts that come to me, or advice or guidance from other writers have given me that have helped inspire and motivate me to keep writing. The title comes from my love of pool, though I guess it also applies to my politics some. Cheers.

So much of writing is NOT writing. It's observing the new and the common. It's reading, both for research and for pleasure. It's looking for the connections in disparate lives and existences. It's the everyday living that will inform our writing. All of this preparation — or distraction — makes it easy to leave the actual words stuck in our minds, barricading them from exploring the page, going out into the world and into the thoughts of others.