Let’s Talk About It

2.27.13

Dialogue, when it’s working well, moves the story forward and more fully develops your characters. Keeping this in mind, write a scene for a story that is only dialogue between two characters. Let what the characters say reveal the plot and their personalities and motives. 

Lucille Clifton

Blessing the Boats: A Tribute to Lucille Clifton, a celebration of the late poet's life and work on the occasion of the posthumous publication of her Collected Poems by BOA Editions, was held on February 21 and featured readings by poets Sherman Alexie, Tina Chang, Toi Derricotte, Michael Dickman, Timothy Donnelly, Cornelius Eady, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Nick Flynn, Tonya Foster, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Marie Howe, Dante Micheaux, Sharon Olds, and Tracy K. Smith.

Cory Vick and Gerri White

Chris Moon

Be Davidson Herrera

Chris Moon

Frank Andrick

Chris Moon

Ruben Reveles

Chris Moon

Haiku Chronicles

"Ants on the Sidewalk," the twenty-sixth episode of the poetry podcast Haiku Chronicles, features a video montage of urban haibun, haiku, and senryu by poets Naia, Deborah P Kolodji, and Gregory Longenecker.

The Form It Takes

2.25.13

As poet Ted Kooser writes in The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), “When it comes to the form your poem takes, you can determine it as you write....As you work on your poem, try to see what shape the poetry wants to assume.” Following Kooser’s advice, write a draft of a poem and analyze its structure. How many lines does it have? How many stanzas? How many stressed syllables per line? Look for a dominant pattern in what you’ve written and revise the poem to fit that pattern consistently.

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