Maybe, like me, you’ve had productive stretches as a writer, but for whatever reason—boredom, changed circumstances, lost confidence —you’ve hit a fallow period. You’re not writing, and the longer you go without writing, the harder it is to start again. In graduate school, I wrote prolifically, but from […]
I found transformation through poetry. I remember reading poems that literally changed my life. Like, after reading them, I could breathe again. I found self-acceptance, worth, and hope in the breathtaking sadness of Kim Addonizio’s “To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall”. I went on to […]
Ever hear someone say, “People can do just about anything if he or she can read but they can get along well without math”? Reality check. Imagine your frustration if you couldn’t do something as simple as balance a checkbook on a regular basis, make change, deal with […]
In 2017, I decided to start a newsletter. I named it Sticks & Stones after the childhood chant “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Of course, words can and do hurt, and are far more powerful than mere sticks and stones, but […]
Memoir workshops are ideal for introducing the beautiful art of poetry writing. Many of my students have not yet experienced the joys of writing free verse. This blog post illustrates how I teach this workshop. Free verse is not just another vehicle to tell your story. It’s so […]
Not everyone in modern times truly appreciates poetry. It's often linked to old sonnets and pretty love rhymes. But as a poet, you know there's much more to it than meets the eye. Just like short stories, novellas, and books, poetry has different genres, styles, and rules. Marketing […]
Poets and writers are creative. On paper, we concoct characters and emotions. We invent forms and structure. We imagine people and places. We use the latest technology to research our work and appeal to readers. We write, edit and revise so no verse or phrase or word is […]
1. That movement in the brush, the chance reflection in a pane of glass, that blue comb you found on a gravel path, the person your peripheral vision almost caught--these are the spermatozoa of poems. All they lack are the reactions of the egg in the womb of […]
I don't know what it was about The Bell Jar that made me want to write about it but from the second I put the book down I knew there had to be more to Sylvia Plath and her character, Esther Greenwood's, story. When I learned that Plath […]
I don't know what it was about The Bell Jar that made me want to write about it but from the second I put the book down I knew there had to be more to Sylvia Plath and her character, Esther Greenwood's, story. When I learned that Plath […]
