Voice is everything, Reader. If you like the poems I’ve written, it’s probably because you like the voice behind and beneath and above them. You like the tone, the edge, the shift of tempo. If you like reading these posts, it’s probably because you sort of know what to expect but not quite. And there [...]
Posts Tagged ‘poetry’
Translations from Behind Doors
Posted in Poetry/Literature, tagged Blog, poetry, tone, voice on July 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A Heap of Inertia
Posted in Poetry/Literature, tagged Blog, Elliston Room, Facebook, poetry on April 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Reader, all is well. I’ve just been a little bit tired of posting here every single day. And I’m betting you’ve been a bit tired of it, too. Especially when there’s really not much going on for me to write about.
You’d think I could shake something out to do and then write to you about [...]
The Stressed and the Unstressed
Posted in Friends, tagged Food, Friends, poetry, Politics, rhythm on February 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Yes, yes. Yesterday’s post was sort of bleak, wasn’t it. I had been looking for a poem about a train ride in winter whose title I had forgotten when I uncovered the one posted yesterday…and since most of you have not read it nor had any idea it existed, I thought I’d just put it [...]
A Circle Portrait
Posted in Poetry/Literature, tagged alcoholism, JAMA, poetry on February 6, 2009 | 3 Comments »
A CIRCLE PORTRAIT
Lose a string of jobs, or days, and wonder
how the same amount of alcohol that made
you clever turned your witty words thick
and ugly. Nurse the hidden beer you stow
beneath the seat and drive the weaving streets
alone in the churning town. Press your brow
against the steering wheel. Admit defeat,
and pray the usual prayer: get [...]
Good Thing the Title’s so Short…
Posted in Poetry/Literature, tagged poetry on February 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
…it doesn’t offer up promises the little book can’t keep.
Yes. Thanks for Asking Me
Posted in writing, tagged Kent State University Press, poetry, Salt, Wick Poetry Center, writing on January 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The first word out of my mouth is usually “no.” Do you want to do this? No. Do you want to go there? No.
Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from the people at the Wick Poetry Center inviting me to an event at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. These are the folks who [...]
Post on the Morning Following a Late Dinner
Posted in Poetry/Literature, tagged poetry, Cincinnati Review, readings on January 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I did none of the things I thought I would do yesterday. Some days are like that.
I did, however, read Kimbrell’s wonderful poem to a crowd of between 75 and 100 people. You can tell when they’re with you, and they were with me. It’s a good poem, and I read it really well, I [...]
Itching for 48 Degrees
Posted in Scooter, tagged bicycle, poetry, Scooter, weather on January 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When I left work yesterday, the temperature was 38 degrees. I took my coat off. When I walked Murphy at the dog-walking place, I wore a sweater and a scarf but no coat and no gloves. Then, I fired up both scooters and, in order to get their parts moving and their lines cleared out, [...]
The Poet Who Shot Three Holes in the Heart
Posted in Poetry/Literature, tagged poetry, Cincinnati Review, C.D. Wright, JeanRo Bistro, Salt on January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve agreed to read at a public event tomorrow night. Not my own poetry, but someone else’s. The Cincinnati Review, the literary magazine for which I was eventually the Associate Editor, is celebrating it’s 5th year with a big thing, and those of us closely connected to it are reading some of our favorite work [...]
A Meeting
Posted in Friends, tagged "A Meeting", Blog, poetry, Wendell Berry on December 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It is time, Reader, to put “Not Alice” to rest for a while…think of her as a grouchy bear retreating into her den to hibernate. I’ve loved my wonderful mornings with you, and for those of you who are new here, I apologize; but there are deadlines to meet and small books to welcome, and [...]
