Terrible things happen in fairy tales. Even in the watered-down Disney versions, stepmothers try to poison their stepdaughters, children are lost in the woods and captured to be eaten, young women are imprisoned in towers. LW Lindquist leads our latest book club discussion on Kim Addonizio’s Ordinary Genius.
Poetry at Work: The Doctor—William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was both a poet and a physician, and both were part of the same whole.
Workspace Poetry
Observe the space you work in. No matter how simple and plain or how complex and luxurious, it contains poetry. Can you find it?
Did Someone Say Twitter Poetry Party?
You heard right. It’s that time again. Tweetspeak will host a Twitter Poetry Party on Tuesday, October 9, from 9:30-10:30 p.m. EST. Wonder how these things work? @tspoetry will provide a prompt — could be a thought, a line of poetry, a short quote or even a headline. You write a line of poetry on Twitter […]
A Pencil for Emily—Near the Emily Dickinson House
I stopped recently at the home of Emily Dickinson, in Amherst, Mass., to make things right. And sweet baby irony—would you guess she stood me up?
Poetry at Work™
“Work” is a multifaceted concept and subject. It extends from the board room to the shop floor, from the Oval Office to the local school district, from the tractor-trailer truck on the interstate to the university classroom, from stage and screen to the hospital intensive care unit, from raising a child to burying a loved […]
Ordinary Genius: Entering Poetry
The other day I stumbled onto an old Google Talk conversation with a friend, from about a year ago. The conversation went something like this: Friend: I lurked at the Tweetspeak Twitter party last night. Me: I can’t do the Tweetspeak. Too confusing. Friend: I was lost. I’m too literal. Me: L.L. tagged me on […]
Tweetspeak Exclusive: Yet Another Emily Dickinson Daguerreotype Discovered
The recent discovery of a third daguerreotype of Victorian-era poet Emily Dickinson has historians scratching their heads.
Discovering Moons, Discovering Myself
I wanted to give you something of comfort: words like an armoire smelling of talc, lined with lace, concealing a ruby bracelet, tortoise shell comb. Words that melt on the tongue a communion wafer. wheaten and whispering of salvation… (from the poem “Why Write” by Judith Valente) I read Judith Valente’s Discovering Moons twice, once […]
September: Tea for Two (on Proper Sweet Tea)
Some define the boundaries of the American south by way of the Mason Dixon line. Others define its lines by allegiances during the War of Northern Aggression. Frankly, I find both such delineations to be crude and lacking in nuance. No, I do not ascribe to traditional notions of defining the South. Instead, I reckon its […]
Poetry Classroom: Hard Road by Li Bai
Li Bai was one of China’s most important poets. Read about his intriguing life and experience one of his insightful, even subtly witty, poems.
Image-ine: Red Shoes
A girl can dream of stepping out on the High Road, a flame in heels that’ll steel no beau’s heart. What laces each ankle in place she’ll turn to take his fancy and he, blood pressure rising, will let her lead and whirl. “Red Shoes, ” acrylic on board, by Nicola Slattery. Used with permission. […]
This Week’s Top 10 Poetic Picks
The best in poetry (and poetic things), this week with Seth Haines. 1 Art Brian Hirschy is a good friend and a grand photographer. Last weekend we were discussing the state of photography and how the iPhone has become a useful tool in the photographer’s gear bag. With its high resolution capabilities and the development of […]
Poet’s Penance (Part 2)
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell concludes the essay she began last week, seeking to answer the question, “What is a poet?“ My Many-Minded-Ness, or “One of These Things is Not Like the Other” Poets are many and multiple, each unique in his or her own peculiar ways. No two of them are alike—so much so that there […]
“Finding My Elegy” by Ursula Le Guin
Le Guin has pulled together some of her favorite poems and included new ones as a kind of possible life or work summary, including “Finding My Elegy”…
THIS WEEK’S TOP 10 POETIC PICKS
The best in poetry (and poetic things), this week with Seth Haines. 1 Art In case you haven’t heard, which is to say in case you live under a rock, the iPhone 5 launched yesterday. Apple’s newest version of their popular telephone/personal computing device is reportedly thinner, lighter, and at twenty times as awesome as […]
Poet’s Penance (Part 1)
Poet: Bless me, Father, for I am a poet, and I have no idea what that means. Priest: I absolve you from your sin. […]
Thomas Gray and the Elegy
Thomas Gray and the Elegy: From the beginning to the epitaph at the end, the poem is shot through with meditations, reflections and allusions to death and the end of life…
September: Tea for Two (the diary of a coffee quitter)
I am a helpless, habitual coffee drinker. For the most part, I don’t drink yuppie, frothy coffee. No, I drink the black stuff, the kind that tastes like ash. I drink it like it’s a badge of American masculinity, I guess. My grandpa used to say, “real men take their coffee the way God intended […]
image-ine: tribes
tribes save me from the little tribes the us and them tribes that say who can’t marry who that make you take up a gun to defend them give me those sisters and brothers in the bigger family to link arms with to cluck and strut together to head off somewhere not knowing precisely where […]