I have finished with my graduate school applications, which means I am going to take a well deserved respite. I will jump out of the rut I have been in and seek to make some new furrows. Amid all of this breaking free, I am going to try and tackle some new work. I don’t […]
During this time of year in the Pacific Northwest the whole world turns gray. Rain and cloud cover become the norm. Although the days are lengthening, there is usually less sunshine to be had. January and February are grim even for the locals. * * * * Although T.S. Elliot said that April was the […]
When I was young the day after Christmas was reserved for showing off the gifts that I had been given to my friends and vice versa. Sometimes we were allowed to play with the new toys and sometimes we only got to look. * * * I have been reading Rebecca Brown’s collection of short […]
While earning my undergraduate degree, I was ten years older than most of the students in my classes. I was filled with gratitude to finally know what I wanted to do with my life. I was mature enough to see my dreams through. But I struggled with the fear that I had come to writing […]
When I was seven or eight, I wanted drawing lessons. Both of my parents, art teachers, were not eager to pay for me to learn how to draw. My father said that he would teach me. He set to work helping me draw dinosaurs from illustrations in a book. These weren’t children’s drawings; they were […]
When most people are asked to give an opinion about poetry they shrivel up like time lapsed apples. The first response out of a person’s puckered mouth usually goes, “Oh, I don’t know anything about that,” or “I am not much of a poetry person.” When did we become so fearful of poetry? How did […]
Maybe poetry went wrong for you in high school. Perhaps an English teacher decided to start unraveling Shakespeare like the Da Vinci Code, until it resembled a complicated algebra problem…hexameter. No, I mean iambic! Somewhere in being taught how to dissect a poem to reveal its “meaning” poetry became nebulous—a dangerous sea for amateurs to […]
You can read my work an upcoming issue of Oranges & Sardines.http://www.poetsandartists.com/about.htm Two of my poems will be featured there soon!