Where Do Poems Come From?

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The thing about changing your writing, unlike changing your life, is that it is much easier. You don’t have to max out your credit cards on a trip to Italy, find a guru in India, or go to Bali to fall head over heels. (#EatPrayLove.) All you have to do is change your words. Words are the building blocks of poems, and hence, the building blocks of your ideas; your style; your substance. If you change the words, and the way you use them, you change everything – and that means both inside and out.

Many people think they need to feel “inspired” to write, but seasoned writers know that not only is that untrue, “getting inspired” isn’t even a key ingredient. Sometimes the best work you can do is done not out of inspiration, but out of sheer panic, under perfect duress, when you…

I think a lot of folks suffer under the illusion that you have to be born with a special talent, or else you’re sunk. The truth is, like most things, writing can in fact be learned. Like heart-surgery, or using Excel, or making a good quiche Lorraine, writing is a skill. The question is not, “Am I good at this?” but, “Do I like doing it?” Do I like writing, or reading other good writers, or sitting at a desk, staring out a window, contemplating the sound of the rain? If so, then keep doing it, even if you’re not good.

I just finished reading Nancy Lynee Woo’s book, Bearing the Juice of it All (Finishing Line Press), and I’m in love. Her language is visceral and gripping, her work honest and probing, her structure both sharp and layered. When she agreed to be on The Poetry Saloncast with me and…

“Even singing a sad song requires an absolute happiness.” – Galway Kinnel   Can you make poetry fun, even when it is about serious subjects? I’ve been reading Cameron Morse’s sixth book of poetry, Far Other (Woodley Press, November, 2020). It focuses on the questions of mortality, spirituality, and the…

This month at The Poetry Salon we are focusing our attention on the work of Sonia Greenfield, author of Boy With a Halo at the Farmer’s Market, American Parable, and Letdown. Sonia is also the editor of Rise-Up Review, a journal that is self-described as “a landing site for the…

I was in a poetry workshop where a talented poet wrote, “I had to burn my brother’s body in order to stay alive during the night.”

I responded, “Oh, how sweet; the brother sacrifices himself in order to keep the sister alive.”

My neighbor said, “No, that’s not it. She’s empowered. She killed her brother in order to take care of herself.”

The instructor said, “You can shorten this to ‘I burned my brother and lived off the warmth.’”

The writer said, “I have no brother. Everything in this poem is a lie.”

Welcome to the next in our NaNoWriMo series of reflections on this poet’s experience trying to write a novel.   So is there a best time in the day to write? Probably not. If there is, it’s different for everybody, but here’s how I experience it. I like to write. Especially…

I never have writer’s block, and my husband hates me for it.

If you ask him, or any of my friends or family really, they will affirm that expressing what I’m thinking is not my issue. There are no end of things to discuss and no end to my valuable opinions about them, and since most of my friends know this and avoid taking my calls as a result, I have nobody to tell about my opinions except the page. The page never talks back. It’s a great listener. When I write a first draft, I don’t care if it is good because I can always delete it before some analog human comes along with opinions that are different than mine (i.e. wrong).

As a poet, and full-time poetry teacher from California, I sometimes take for granted that poetry is everywhere, that it is for everyone, and that it can be used to help us all communicate with one another during difficult times. Interviewing the brave, incisive poet Kai Coggin about her newest…

When I tell non-artists that I am a professional poet, this is the gist of the conversation that typically follows: “Really?” “Yes.” “You’re kidding.” “No.” “You can make a living doing that?” “Yes.” (long pause) “Huh.” They mostly can’t think of much to say after that. I suspect they think…

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We are here to help one another get through ‘this’ whatever ‘this’ is. –     Kurt Vonnegut   One of the things I find so intriguing about living through this pandemic is how I feel both overwhelmed by all the rapid changes of the world, at the same time I…

Something that is essential can’t be taught; it can only be given, or earned, or formulated in a manner too mysterious . . . still, (poets) require a lively acquaintance with the history of their particular field and with past as well as current theories and techniques.  Whatever can’t be…