OK guys, I've checked again and April is still here, and in America that means
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 5, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 5
1) Yesterday we listened to David Kirby talking about creating poetry, now let's listen to him reading his poem "These Arms of Mine".
2) That was awfully quick, let's listen to one more fun poem before reading. Here is Thomas Lux reading his witty poem "I Love You Sweatheart".
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) We've listened to a number of poems this month already, but not any performance poetry. I've been a fan of the tremendously witty Beau Sia for years. This performance of his poem "Love" is from the show Def Poetry Jam and skewers the idea of a love poem in the meandering, controlled stream of consciousness sort of way that I think David Kirby would very much appreciate. There is swearing in this video, so NSFW
5) And for good measure, here's a short video of Sharon Olds reading her sensuously geographic poem "Topography".
7) Bonus new poems! These additional poems were published in 2020 or 2021. Fresh off the presses.
"Jumpers" by Seth Jani in Waterwheel Review October 2020.
"Stage 4" by Whittney Jones in Red Tree Review Issue 1.
"Unearthlings" by Allison A. deFreese in River Heron Review Issue 4.1
8) Bonus video! I'm a big fan of poets reading their own work, so enjoy this recording of New York School great Frank O'Hara reading his poem "Present".
OK guys, I've checked again and April is still here, and in America that means
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 4, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 4
1) Listen to this short radio clip of poet David Kirby discussing his views on how poetry is the product of the deliberate and the accidental.
2) Go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) Check out the following two video poems by Kai Carlson-Wee from Button Poetry "Cry of the Loon" and "Holes in the Mountain".
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5) Step into the time machine and travel back to April 2, 2017 and try this exercise: "Complete a Piece Sunday: Dueling Cinquains" which walks you quickly through the cinquain form and guides you to writing your own "double cinquain".
6)Word of the Day x 3: Go to the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day website and look through the listings for January, February and March, picking one word from each month. Write a poem using those three words.
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2021 Update:
7) Bonus new poems! These additional poems were published in 2020 or 2021. Fresh off the presses.
"3 Very Short Poems" by C. Cimmone in Dead Fern Press 1. ("The Day I Wrote His Obituary", "Psychosomatics", "Mortal Remains of a Used Up Woman")
"Stone Canoe" by Scott Waters in Bombfire March 13, 2021.
8) Bonus video! I love this poem by the awesome poem Danez Smith, and think you will get a kick out of it too. Check out Danez Smith reading "Dinosaurs in the Hood".
Yes, I've checked and April is still here, and in America that means
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 3, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 3
1) Watch this 20 minute documentary about author of over 20 books of poetry and winner of the National Book Award, Ruth Lilly Prize and Wallace Stevens Award as well as the former Poet Laureate of New Jersey, Gerald Stern which is mostly him reading poems and showing pictures—and despite how I explained that, is actually really interesting.
2) Go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) Check out the following two-minute video of Phillip Levine reading his poem "Belle Isle, 1949".
5) Instead of going back in time to do an exercise from Notebooking Daily past, today write an ekphrastic poem (a poem in some way inspired by another piece of art) based on the following image, which you can, should you choose to accept the challenge, submit to the Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge which has a deadline of April 31st and is free to submit.
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2021 Update:
7) Bonus new poems! These additional poems were published in 2020 or 2021. Fresh off the presses.
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related and not terribly boring, because, let's face it, sometimes poetry can get boring. It's often a lot of thinking and being serious and pondering linguistics and the fine details of Greek mythology and not enough fun. These will sometimes be all serious and poignant, but most of them will be fun and entertaining.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 2, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 2
1) Watch this little video with Campbell McGrath where he talks about how to write a poem. It's nice and short, but still insightful.
2) Go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) Check out the following three short videos about poet Stephen Dunn. First watch this profile from Cortland Review in their Poets in Person series.
Now check out this reading of his poem "Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry" put together with some stills from Lost in Translation.
And finally watch this short video of him reading the poem "Tiger Face" with a little banter at the beginning.
...and finally:
5) Step into the time machine and travel back two years ago to April 2nd, 2018 and try this National Poetry Month 5 words prompt. The requirement that 3 of the words must start a sentence is both doable and relatively tough given the words.
6)Random Title 5 Minute Exercise: Use this random phrase generator and pick a title—only refresh up to three times, so don't be overly picky. Once you have your title, set an alarm for five minutes, and race to write your poem. Don't overthink things, make choices and move forward. You can return to it later or you can just save it and move on. Maybe someday you'll find a few lines that work for another piece, or maybe it turned out decently, or was a decent start that you can expand upon. The point is to knock something out in 5 minutes, take it serious but don't stress about it.
2021 Update:
7) Bonus new poems! These additional poems were published in 2020 or 2021. Fresh off the presses.
Everyday for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related and not terribly boring, because, let's face it, sometimes poetry can get boring. It's often a lot of thinking and being serious and pondering linguistics and the fine details of Greek mythology and not enough fun. These will sometimes be all serious and poignant, but most of them will be fun and entertaining.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 1, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 1
1) Watch this little Ted Talk with Billy Collins which is a bit of him talking, and then animations of a number of his short poems.
2) Go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) So, you've read "Wild Geese" and heard it in your own voice, now you're going to listen to it in Mary Oliver's voice twice. First with the visual of her reading the poem, and then with a video put together by Live Learn Evolve. Try to identify places where you read the poem differently in your head from how it sounded with Oliver reading it? Don't worry about time, both videos will take you less than three minutes. It's National Poetry Month! You can spare 3 minutes to really ruminate on a wonderful poem.
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5) Now write a poem in the spirit of Oliver's Wild Geese"—take the ten minutes or half hour or however long and do it. Don't just think about it, even if you only get a fragment, produce something and save it to perhaps work into a piece later. Get descriptive with nature, relate some aspect of humanity or society with the natural world, or write it however you'd like. Just write something.
If you're completely uninspired, try to write a poem as quickly as you can that is fewer than 18 words and gets from a migratory bird to either the concept of individuality or community.
...and finally:
6) Step into the time machine and travel back to September 17, 2019 and try this Literary Mad Libs writing prompt: "Summer Song". You start with doing a mad lib I concocted from a William Carlos Williams poem, and then take your favorite bits and using guided exercises you form a piece around them.
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2021 Update:
7) Bonus new poems! These additional poems were published in 2020 or 2021. Fresh off the presses.
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bounty of poetry to feast your eyes upon.
So. Let's begin.
April 30, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 30
1) Lets start off with Edward Hirsch giving his take on how to effectively read a poem. I probably should have posted this the first day, but oh well.
2) TV TIME! Let's first watch Paul Muldoon give us all the advice he'd give a young poet—a little tough love we can all use.
Here's Paul Muldoon discussing "Overrated Poetry" and more specifically, how a good poem can come from any source at any time. And yes, that is a different video.
Here is a video interpretation of Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines" translated by W.S. Merwin.
And finally here is another video interpretation of "Alone with Everybody" by Charles Bukowski
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
5) We've seen Paul Muldoon, so now let's look at Irish poet Seamus Heaney in this video which includes a reading of the poems "Digging", "Plowing" and other poems with some funny interruptions and a short interview from what looks like the 1980s.
We love April. Since it's here to stay let's celebrate:
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bounty of poetry to feast your eyes upon.
So. Let's begin.
April 10, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 10
1) Let's start today out with some funny hip hop/poetry videos. First we have a very bored Wes Tank rapping the Dr. Seuss book Fox in Sox. It's tangentially poetry, especially in that sound category. Plus it's entertaining as all heck.
Next is even more for the fun than the educational enrichment. Chris Leavins gives a recital a selection of lyrics from T-Pain's song "Buy You a Drank".
2)And now let's get a little serious. Aesop Rock is notoriously the most verbose rapper ever, and he is one of the few rappers out there that could genuinely have his lyrics stand up on the page—which means they are too dense for many listeners, but those that get it, love him.
He just released an amazing sci fi narrative song about a space mission gone awry. I love the increasingly desperate sound he gives the repeating phrase "Do you read me" throughout the song. I'll write more about this to be sure but listen to the song once or twice. He writes in metaphor as much as a modern poet and there are some tremendous moments in this song. The video is very cool too. I want to play that game!
And for good measure, here is an older narrative song of Aesop Rock's which is much more straightforward—perhaps his most straightforward song, but also one of my favorites. It doesn't have an official video, but here's an interesting animation I found by the artist Dekay (titled "Lucy")
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
5) Since we focused on hip hop and Aesop Rock earlier, let's get a little dose of more poetry-poetry here. In a second. First check out this short video about Nick Flynn talking about his journey as a writer from being a prose writer to a poet and then a memoirist.
Here is Flynn reading his poem "haiku (failed)" after what looks like being hiacked at AWP by a PBS camera crew.
And finally, with a lot of people home schooling their kids, or trying to find enriching activities to do with their homebound families, it seems fitting to link this short video of Nick Flynn discussing teaching poetry to children and why it is important. He mentions the poem "A Story That Could Be True" which is linked in #4.
6) Step into the time machine and travel back to September 1st 2019 to do this Literary Mad Libs with the Emily Dickinson poem "Come Slow—Eden!" and the sequence of exercises to extract a brand new poem from the game's result.
April seems determined to continue, which means it's still:
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bounty of poetry to feast your eyes upon.
So. Let's begin.
April 9, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 9
1) Patrick Stewart is an absolute treasure. He's been reading Shakespearean sonnets every day, here is a video of him reading Sonnet #2, which he indicates is one of his favorites. It's a great way to start, even if I normally push more contemporary verse.
And since we saw Professor X read a sonnet, why not get good ol' Doctor Who aka David Tennant in to read Shakespeare's most famous sonnet, #18
2) On about the opposite end of the spectrum of awesome poetry, here is a recording of Saul Williams performing his poem "Ohm" at a 1996 poetry SLAM. I love Saul Williams, and while most of his performances are much more... well, performative—I like the slower pacing here—which is still not slow by any means, but for those not used to fast-talking may have a hard time with some of his other performances. If you enjoy this, definitely google around, he's a super talented artist and we both apparently fell in love with Stephen Wright at like 12, which is wild. I read his first book s√he at least a dozen times.
5) Today's "Buried Poem" game is one of my own devising (and in this case, my own writing). A "Buried Poem" is the opposite of an erasure poem in that you take a short famous poem, and greatly expand the wordcount, thus creating your own original piece. An original piece, which, someone could make an erasure poem of that would reveal that famous poem (ie, no re-arranging or changing the words, only adding). You will want to be adding at very least 3x the original word count, if not much more. (I wrote a 'buried poem' piece but decided I wanted to submit it so I haven't included it here, but I titled it "Our Very First Shared Fig Newton" and it's about a young romance. These pieces can take any unexpected direction so just run with them!)
6) Now it's time to write your own "Buried Poem". Take the following short Ezra Pound poem and expand it into your own piece which is at least 100 words long, but keep all the words from Pound's poem in their current order, just with other words in between them. You can use "by Ezra Pound" in the piece or you can exclude it. (Hint for the quiz above: I excluded the poet's name which was very telling and would give away the game.)
In the Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
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(Highlight the block to see the answers to yesterday's Name That Poet game (if you missed it, click here to go back first and see if you can figure the poets out for yourself from the series of more progressively telling clues): Poet A: Sara Teasdale, and Poet B: Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bounty of poetry to feast your eyes upon.
2)SNL did a very funny send-up of the final (?) classroom scene of Dead Poet's Society, called "Farewell Mister Bunting"—which was originally aired at a late hour and is NOT for children or those especially visually sensitive. But before we laugh, first let's remind ourselves of why we love that dang movie in the first place with this scene where Robin Williams coaxes a poem out of a reluctant Ethan Hawke.
Now, if you've seen the movie this parody will be a lot funnier, but the 'textbook' definition of poetry will get anyone laughing. Again, not for children or the squeamish—that said, it did air on network television (albeit, late night) so it's much more silly than gross.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) For a little fun, check out this video of comedian and former Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson's famously aimless/stream of consciousness monologues in which he focuses on poetry following Donald Hall's appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate. He touches on some stereotypes about poetry as well as more genuine appreciation. I miss Craig, he was such a unique personality and the formlessness of his show really shook the shackles of the late night genre right from his wrists. He would often dedicate entire shows to just having long discussions with a single guest. If you're curious, watch this full 2015 show with Steven Fry, and heed his warning if you are not familiar with the luminary, who spend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday with Craig. But for today, here's some poetry-related humor from 2006.
5) Now it's time for Name, That, Poet! See how quickly you can identify the following 2 poets (without googling) from three progressively easier questions.
Poet A
1) This poet was mostly known for her love poetry, but she also wrote a good amount of war poetry in her later years, one poem of which inspired a Ray Bradbury story and was featured in the video game Fallout 3.
Poet B
1) An early adopter of Vegetarianism, this poet's writing was not widely published during his lifetime because publishers feared being prosecuted for blasphemy or sedition.
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Need another hint? Understandable, that first set was only for true bio aficionados.
Poet A
2) This poet won the first of the short-lived Columbia University Poetry Prize, and though it was only given for three years, it was renamed as the more familiar Pulitzer Prize for Poetry—and she is recognized by the society as the first Prize winner.
Poet B
2) This poet's second wife is probably more well known to the general public that he is—though for a different genre of literature. Oh, and he died at 29.
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Need another hint? The biographies of poets isn't always the most known things, don't feel bad. See if these hints help.
Poet A
3) This poet committed suicide in 1933—and the poem featured in Fallout 3 is titled "There Will Come Soft Rains".
Poet B
3) Known by 3 names (first, middle and last) , one of his poems served as the title for the Breaking Bad episode "Ozymandius".
(Highlight the block to see the answers to yesterday's Poetry Anagram game (if you missed it, click here to go back first and see if you can figure the word scramble/anagram out for yourself): Villanelle, Edgar Allen Poe, Scanscion, Slant Rhyme, T.S. Eliot)
6) For today's trip back in time, we're travelling back to May 28th, 2016 for this "Complete a Piece Saturday" exercise. You'll be assigned a structured series of individual sentences and then guided with how to put those together and form them into a poem. This exercise is great for a day when you don't have a particular idea stewing in your mind but you want to write, and because it involves random number generation to make your specific combination, you can repeat the same exercise a dozen times and get very different results.
I've remained vigilant on my month-watch and it's definitely still April, and in America that means
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 7, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 7
1) Before we dive explicitly into poetry, I really enjoyed this TED talk about unlocking your creativity via what teachers call 'scaffolding' experiences—generating a series of small accomplishments to build upon—and the speaker David Kelley, uses multiple narratives to explain how he teaches how to de-mystify the creative process. I use a similar process in many of my writing exercises—writing a poem from a blank page can seem incredibly daunting, but if you have to write a series of very specific sentences based on criteria out of your control (requirements/constraints) for instance, you no longer have a blank page to start from. But enough patter, onto the video!
2)The Paris Review is doing a series for National Poetry Month called Poets on Couches—which reminds me of parties during grad school. [insert rim shot] But in this instance, each video is a poet reading a poem that was originally published in The Paris Review. I knew I'd be highlighting it when I saw Kay Ryan's "Crash" being featured by Natalie Shapero. I love that poem, it's from Ryan's phenomenal collection Say Uncle which I've read at least a dozen times—and Shapero is explains the poem very well afterwards. Plus, with the reading and the explication the whole video is still only 5 minutes.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) Go read all of the following three short poems that were published more than two years ago—you'll detect a strain of surrealism that is not by accident:
4) In the following video Kay Ryan talks briefly about why she writes poetry, her affinity for rhyme, and the joy of winning her MacArthur Fellowship (the video is from 2012)
In this video from the Poetry Everywhere series we get a little biographical information on Ryan before seeing her read the poem "Turtle".
And since Ryan's poems are so short, here's another video of her reading, this time the poem Shipwreck at just over a minute long.
5) Now it's time for a poetry-based word scramble! If you're so inclined, solve the following poetry-related anagrams for words, terms and names. I will post the answers in tomorrow's Activity Pack.
(What will happen if I meet Ms. Coulter while playing World of Warcraft?)
I' L L L E V E L A N N
(What is the common perception of a 'poet'?)
P A L E, A G E D L O N E R
(Describe recycling...)
C A N S = C O I N S
(If you listen to everything you read on the internet, you...)
L E A R N M Y T H S
(Where the ultra-rich creche is located...)
T O T I S L E
6) And since we've gotten a hefty dose of rhyming, for today's trip back in time, we're going to January 11th, 2016 for this "Filler Miller" Rhymebank exercise. This exercise involves some brainstorming, writing unrelated sentences, and then assembly and filling out—taking on a similar incremental or scaffolding approach that David Kelley talked about in the first video.
You can trust me, guys, I keep checking and April is still here, and in America that means
Every day for National Poetry Month I'll be posting a few fun or interesting poetry links or videos, a Throwback writing prompt from this site, a few poems published in the last couple years and a couple classic poems—things that are poetry-related interesting or fun.
You will have a change to write poetry even if you've never done it before—the writing prompts aim to demystify the process of writing a poem. This will not take the place of the 2020 Writing Exercise Series, but will be in addition to it, so there will be a bevy of poetry to bathe your mind with.
So. Let's begin.
April 6, 2020
National Poetry Month 2020 Activity Pack Day 6
1) Poets are notorious punsters. Cheeky little buggers. We wear the badge with pride in general. With that in mind, check out this video from the Just Write channel that focuses on the use of puns in literature/media. If you're not familiar with the TV show Arrested Development, I highly recommend the first 3 seasons at least—you'll get a healthy dose of that original run in this
2) Okay, I know that's only partially related to poetry, but like I said, poets LOVE puns. The potential in a pun is for an added layer of meaning and poets love layering meaning. So, now that we have laughed, check out this Crash Course video on Sylvia Plath. They always have good production and this is a good introduction to a great American poet.
3) Now go read one, or preferably all of the following three 'recently' published poems:
4) If you're not a fan of word finds you can skip this, oooooor, you can turn it into a writing exercise. In the following Poetry-based word search I included over 50 words, names or terms (Meter and MFA share a line in the key but are not together in the puzzle). I've listed 40 of those in the puzzle for reference, and there are dozens of happenstance 3-6 letter words in there as well. For a writing exercise, look for words not listed, and use those words in a poem of your own. Hint, "STEAM" (Here is a link to a PDF if that is easier for your to print to do the word search)
5) Here are three short videos of James Dickey, around 2 minutes each. The first is an interesting video where he is talking to Robert Lowell about a dream that he's had 3 times, and that he hopes he dies dreaming.
Here is a 2 minute video in which he gives advice to young writers in 1982.
And finally here is a video of James Dickey reading his short poem "Fog Envelops the Animals" in 1987.
6) And now let's step into a time machine and go all the way back to February 28th 2020! SO FAR! For this final installment in the 'Erasing "Out of Season"' series where the last quarter of the Hemingway story is presented to make an erasure poem from. Erasure poems are a lot of fun and they don't require any initial spark of an idea even!
I believe strongly that keeping a notebook of snippets and interesting tidbits of information, dialogue, quotes, observations etc. is of great use to a writer. For one, I think the act of writing it down strengthens your memory of the thing you thought might be memorable enough to write, despite the inability to sit down at the given time to write an entire piece. It also serves as a reservoir of fragments to draw from when you are writing. David Kirby spoke well to the idea of a writer's notebook in an interview with Stephen Reichert of Smartish Pace when he said:
I’d have the young poets maintain a stockpile of linguistic bits: stories, weird words, snatches of conversation they’d overheard, lines from movies they’d seen or books they’d read. Most young poets will say something like, “Well, I have to write a poem now. Let’s see; what can I write about?” And then they end up writing about their own experiences, and, let’s face it, we all have the same experiences. So what all poets need is a savings account they can raid from time to time
This site is both a general writing blog, and one to help spark the writer's mind for ten to thirty minutes a day with short exercises which may not be full stories or poems, but will hopefully serve as a reservoir for future works.
I'm a writer living and teaching in San Diego. I received my BA from California State University, Long Beach, and my MFA from The University of Washington where I was the coordinating editor at The Seattle Review as it transitioned into its current "Long View" form. My writing has appeared in The Southern Review, The North American Review, The New York Quarterly, Permafrost, Bayou, 5AM, The California Quarterly, The Evansville Review, The Georgetown Review, Dark Matter, Cutthroat, Cairn, Miller's Pond, Pearl and The Lullwater Review among others and is forthcoming in ONTHEBUS's long awaited double issue, The Cape Rock and Exit 7. I've been once nominated for a Pushcart Prize and once did not receive a Pushcart Prize. I'm giving facial hair a go now too. Go figure.
If you have a piece that you really need another's opinion on, I may be able to help. Email zebulonworkshops@gmail.com if you would like to begin a correspondence. Critiques begin at $39 for 2 rounds of edits on a single poem and publishing advice.
