Tonight, my flowerpots are so dry the water I pour in forces bubbles out of the soil. Unless I’ve watered it, every plant looks tired of trying to grow. Even the ones I have watered consistently all summer weep in the evening heat. In normal years, I often wonder at the power of flowers and […]
Book Spine Poetry
Wander around your basement or upstairs in your room. You’re sure to find a Cento Poem. We did.
Seamus Heaney, Gem-Cutter
Human Chain refutes the notion that poetry is the province of the young. It’s a collection of poems that demonstrates Heaney’s love of words and language, carefully chiseled and strung together like brilliant diamonds.
My Life as a Cento
Cento (Lat. “patchwork”). A verse composition made up of lines selected from the work or works of some great poet(s) of the past. —The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics Like most poets, I have a notebook. Mine is a chunky tablet, 5×7 inches, with a large spiral binding and two thick boards that serve […]
The Poetry Alcove
I live in an older suburb of St. Louis, the oldest suburb, in fact, incorporated in 1857. Just a few blocks from our house are four used bookstores, kept well supplied no doubt, by local state sales and the numerous used book fairs held every year. The oldest of the four, and the one with […]
Scenes from The Whipping Club 2
At our recent poetry jam on Twitter, we went into the woods, then to the ballroom, and then back to the woods. And we created five poems as a start. Now we have the next seven, and we’re deep into shoes, and shoelaces, and lace and gossamer (you can see the thread developing) and back […]
Scenes from The Whipping Club
It was another TweetSpeak Poetry Twitter party last Tuesday, and 13 intrepid souls braved the shock of their Twitter followers and tweeted away, creating lines of poetry. The prompts were all taken from The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry, the novel published by T.S. Poetry Press and listed as one of Oprah’s Hot Summer Reads. […]
Apple Trees and Dublin: Interview with Deborah Henry
Our latest title, The Whipping Club, by Deborah Henry, was recently chosen as an Oprah Summer Read. In a nice convergence, one of our favorite people at one of our favorite organizations interviewed Deborah the same week the Oprah news released. So get ready for a little delight and a few apple trees in Ireland… […]
The Poetry of the Tree
Karen Swallow Prior considers the poetry of the tree, from Joyce Kilmer’s ‘Trees’ to ‘The Dream of the Rood.’
Gold, Gold, Gold: She Got It
Our latest title, The Whipping Club, made the Oprah Summer Reading list last week. Such a golden moment! So we decided to give away some gold. The lucky winner for our gold giveaway? (And she worked hard, entering multiple poems). Ellen EtCetera is the winner, chosen at random. Now, Ellen, just tell us which gold […]
Oh, Annabel: Words of My Father
Daddy told stories of WWII, when he first started memorizing Poe. I’ll never know why he chose Edgar, but we loved hearing his voice recite as we traveled.
Oprah Summer Reads 14-k Gold Giveaway
Some books make the A List, and some books make the O List. In February, T.S. Poetry Press, known for poetry and memoirs, published its first novel, The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry. It is the story of a child placed for adoption, and years later, his birth parents learn that he wasn’t adopted as […]
Guaranteed Disease-Resistant
There was nothing like roses. I was addicted.
The Poet Who Wasn’t
Carlos Fuentes died last week, a writer with a poet’s heart who didn’t write poetry.
My “Poem-ography”
Who – what poems – would comprise your “poem-ography?”
The Rose Remembers
Human beings have long associated Roses with Remembrance.
Kid in the Candy Shop
Boy, did I find candy poems. I was the kid in the candy shop. I didn’t know what to buy with my nickel. So I spent 25 cents and bought five poems.
Guy Kawasaki Says to Use Poetry in Business
Rhyming, according to Kawasaki, is serious business.
Fields of Red 4
A (very) short primer on editing tweets from our Twitter poetry parties
The Writing Life: How to Be a Famous Author
The writing life should be simpler than this, right? No, it’s not easy, and it never will be. Because we want to be famous. And that’s good, and not.