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Journey Into Poetry: Will Willingham

By L.L. Barkat 7 Comments

old-building

Here at T. S. Poetry, nothing could make us happier than when a person discovers poems. Reading them, or writing them. Or both.

I’ve known Will for several years, online. Then, this Fall, we actually met at a Writer’s Retreat (where we laughed quite a lot, and I learned more about the life of an insurance adjuster). Through it all, Will has kindly put up with my teasing about poetry. Until now.

Now, inexplicably, the teasing has been embraced as the serious thing it is: an invitation to go deeper, to travel a new kind of word-road.

Thinking back, I can’t remember exactly where it began. Maybe I said something about Will’s prose sounding poetic. Maybe it was a crazy night on Facebook when I began to see shared lines as lines of poetry.

In any case, the invitation has been accepted. It’s just a playground, says Will. And, honestly, we hope it remains a playground. Because playing with words can be so fun and healing—especially playing with poetic words, because they get right to the heart of things with succinct images, sounds, and rhythms.

Welcome, Will. We are so pleased to be sharing the journey (or the playground) with you now.

the beginning

You owe me a poem,
she says, and bats smirky
semi-colon lashes into a wink.
Dang it, I slip. Her memory

is like the fine ground
edge of a kitchen cleaver
honed sharp by a housewife’s
desperation…

A debt paid in words
overdraws my account.
The details are sketchy but
I spent my last
99 cents at the secondhand
store on a silky flannel shirt
to cover lumberjack arms
bulging thick from swinging
the ax

On second glance I see
the tags have been switched
and it’s just Twinkies
up my sleeve after all

Photo and poem by Will Willingham. Used with permission. Post by L.L. Barkat, author of Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing

___________

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L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing. She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog and is a freelance writer for Edutopia. Her poetry has appeared on NPR and at VQR and The Best American Poetry. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
L.L. Barkat
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Filed Under: journey into poetry, poetry, writer's group resources

About L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing. She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog and is a freelance writer for Edutopia. Her poetry has appeared on NPR and at VQR and The Best American Poetry. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Comments

  1. Megan Willome says

    February 13, 2012 at 11:56 am

    I am so excited I can hardly stand it! So glad you got her to do it!

    Reply
  2. L. L. Barkat says

    February 13, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    One can only say when one sees poetry. It’s up to the poet-in-the-making to see it too. LW takes the credit for this then 🙂 And I’m so happy.

    Reply
  3. Zanjha says

    February 20, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    I have always used poetry as a means of release. I love the picture prompting they are wonderful. I am exciting when another person begins a poetic journey!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A confession, of sorts « A DIFFERENT STORY says:
    February 17, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    […] Related: A very kind article about the playground by L.L. Barkat of Tweetspeak Poetry. Share this:PrintEmailFacebookTwitterTumblr […]

    Reply
  2. This Week's Top Ten Poetic Picks - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
    July 25, 2013 at 8:05 am

    […] its shelf life. The shiny, cream-filled golden snack food played a prominent role in the poem that nudged my poetry out into the open, so I’m all for Twinkie the Kid having a better than average life expectancy. The Twinkie is […]

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  3. Ordinary Genius: Entering Poetry (part 2) | says:
    January 1, 2014 at 4:01 pm

    […] that way. One day I was calling poetry “cryptic nonsense” and practically the next, posting a lengthy poem on Facebook about lumberjacks, kitchen knives, Twinkies, and the persuasive powers of semi-colon eyelashes. […]

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