I have a longstanding obsession with silence. Perhaps it’s not that longstanding. I became aware of silence in graduate school. I began to focus on how a poet’s lines interacted with the white space and the silence. It became – and still is – a point of consideration in my own work.
National Poetry Month
National Poetry Month: Sound and Rhythm
I don’t much toy with rhyme schemes or meter, but I love rhythm. I think it might be my background in music or simply that I love the way words sound. I like to hear them and to think about how they roll around in the mouth or off the tongue. Strange? Perhaps, but I’m not alone in my love of sound and rhythm.
National Poetry Month: Objects
My own poetry often has few details. I think the shift occurred when I became tired of narrative poetry. I started to focus on other things, one of them being the objects themselves. The physical things – a hand or an elephant – became more important than a plot. The story still existed, but it became an undercurrent. Things were kept beneath the surface, not to be malicious or indirect but because the objects were growing in power. They had their own stories to tell if I’d let them.
National Poetry Month 2012
A lot has changed since last year’s National Poetry Month post. I now share poems on a weekly basis on the Facebook page, both my own poems as well as the poems of others. I’m not writing a new poem every day. I kept the schedule until my life became the whirlwind known as moving to Austin and starting a job. I’m trying to get back into a regular rhythm with my poetry. I miss the rhythm, and I know I need to be writing poetry more consistently. It’s the only way to become a better poet – that, and reading poetry.
National Poetry Month 2011
April* is National Poetry Month. I wouldn’t have known about it except that I happened to see a tweet regarding the subject in my Twitter feed. As a poet, I probably should be aware of the celebration, but I have to confess that I’m often oblivious to such things.