When Trish asked me to write for her blog a few months ago, I was excited. At the time I belonged to a ladies writing group in Hickory, NC called Hickory Word Weavers. We met twice a month and shared our work. We had about ten minutes of […]
When I first got serious about writing poetry (2003-ish), the measures of success seemed relatively simple: delight in the writing process, publish poems in journals, win a book contest and find a poetry community. While all have been elusive at various times and in varying degrees, the only one that's […]
When I became the second Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California, I wanted to continue the poetry workshop that the first Los Gatos Poet Laureate, Parthenia Hicks, had started. That group met on a weekday evening, once per month. Some of the attendees told me that they would […]
Every so often, we are fortunate to read a line of poetry that changes the way we look at the world. This was my experience the first time I read the third line - the last line of the third stanza - in "Final Soliloquy of the Interior […]
"Without peace, we cannot be creative," says spiritual guru Kamlesh Patel and quite honestly, I agree. I am a first time mom of a toddler who is ever-learning and wants to know everything. He can't talk yet but knows how to point at things and ask me about […]
High-fructose corn syrup. Warnings: small objects like hard candy can be lodged in the throat. Artificial flavor. Artificial color (Red 40, Blue 1). Mineral oil. Print so small you can't read all the ingredients or are advised to call an 800 number toll-free on weekdays to get a […]
High-fructose corn syrup. Warnings: small objects like hard candy can be lodged in the throat. Artificial flavor. Artificial color (Red 40, Blue 1). Mineral oil. Print so small you can't read all the ingredients or are advised to call an 800 number toll-free on weekdays to get a […]
Where I'm at: Rejections: 22 Acceptances: 0 Total submissions: 48 That breaks out to 23 poems being read by editors (or undergrads in charge of slush piles) a total of 207 times. Total submissions last year at this time: 0 Meanwhile I am still doing a one-week-per-month "poetry […]
Why do you read poetry? This question might seem a bit odd, doesn't it? I mean, why am I even asking good poets like you such an insane question? People aren't just called poets for nothing. If anyone ever called you a poet it is because you write […]
One of my favorite ancient sites in the American Southwest is Tuzigoot, a pueblo ruin located in Arizona's Verde Valley. Resting atop a 120 foot limestone ridge, which provided the white stones used to construct the pueblo's many rooms and multistory central tower, Tuzigoot stands against the sky, […]
