In March, my husband and I ran into Joanne while we were out walking and she was returning home from a walk. Over the CDC prescribed distance, we remembered the radio interview she had done with me for KPTZ, and … Continue reading →
Writing a litany of praise for anyone to whom you owe gratitude for life lessons will work in interesting ways if you take on the seemingly unpraiseworthy as if it were praiseworthy. You will get interesting results that push your writing past easy sentimentality or blinding anger to the important waters of insight. Praising What … Continue reading →
[The following article in honor of National Poetry Month appeared in slightly different form in March of 2003.] John Keats created the term ânegative capability,â the idea that a poem holds within it one thing as well as its opposite. For example, when we eulogize someoneâs death, we also celebrate their life. When we ache … Continue reading →
Writing poetry, no matter what genre you usually work in, is truly an experience of re-creating a self. In writing poems from experience and from meditative and reflective moments, you become the maker of something that builds increased intimacy with your truest self. From this intimacy, you grow by creating a self that is more … Continue reading →
It is holiday time and amidst the tornado-like whirl of shopping, decorating, traveling, baking, cooking, and gathering with family, friends, colleagues and community, of offering help in shelters and churches, it may seem hard to write. And even harder still to write to discover what is at the bottom of our hearts and minds. The … Continue reading →
Tuesday, as I waited for election returns, I thought of Allen Ginsbergâs poem âHowl,â written in 1955, so full of despair at what he had seen around him. I wondered what I would howl when I found out whether or not Democrats had gained a majority in the House of Representatives and, therefore, become able … Continue reading →
I was sitting at my dining table this morning with a cup of coffee looking out over the still smoky and haze-ridden sky we had experienced on the Olympic Peninsula for a week because of fires in Eastern Washington and in British Columbia. Sometimes we couldnât see the islands so close to our shores here … Continue reading →
August is the Gregorian calendar month named after the Roman Augustus Caesar, the man responsible for spreading the Roman Empire over the earth. He wrote about his great accomplishments, writings some think of as the typical age-old boastings of a politician. However, others wrote after his death that upon innumerable occasions he donated money to … Continue reading →
Years ago, a poet friend of mine, Jim Mitsui, ended a poem with an image of people âfollowing their keys home.â That image has lingered with me as a lesson about what the writing life saves us from, which is the dullness of always expecting the expected, and what it requires of us, which is … Continue reading →
Our fall/winter 2018 contest judge Kelli Agodon felt that two poems tied for 2nd place. We posted one last week, ?Grave Site Visit? by Nancy Levinson, and this week we are posting the second second-place winning poem, Barbara Simmons âDriving Home.â Kelli wrote this about her choice of Barbara?s poem: âDriving Homeâ is a lovely … Continue reading →
One of two writings tied for second place in our fall/winter 2018 writing contest is âGravesite Visit,â a poem by Writing It Real member Nancy Levinson. Our guest judge Kelli Agondon described her choice this way: âGravesite Visitâ is a beautiful meditation on the healing powers of poetry and how poems (and writing) can help … Continue reading →
[This article appeared in slightly different form in 2014 â ed.] As writers, our ears are tuned for measuring the quality of the words we hear around us. Sometimes, our ears catch speech we think is pure poetry or could be if read that way. We find that with a little rearranging these words express more humor, more … Continue reading →
This winterâs holiday school break, my grandson, now 15 and a half years old and equipped with his driverâs permit, took a two-week intensive driverâs education class. I certainly felt the passage of time as I remembered using an image of my son Seth receiving his driverâs license as I wrote a poem for him … Continue reading →
Writing poetry, no matter what genre you usually work in, is truly an experience of re-creating a self. In writing poems from experience and from meditative and reflective moments, we are the makers of something that helps us come to know ourselves and have increased intimacy with ourselves. From this intimacy comes the creation of … Continue reading →
In our final week of posting contest entries from the fall/winter WIR writing contest, we have seven poems by Linda M. Robertson. Our contest judge Sharon Bryan wrote this about selecting these poems as winners: These poems speak in a voice that makes me want to listen to everything it says. They are so well-crafted that … Continue reading →
For National Poetry Month, tonight I am reading from my own poetry at the link below. For me poetry is an everyday experience and so there arenât any huge production values or perfect lighting in this video. Just me sharing my poems and talking to you about what I hope poetry accomplishes for humanity. You can … Continue reading →
As my mother?s 90th birthday approaches, my husband and I have sorted through photographs from nine decades of her life. He is making a photo essay book to be given to her this Sunday and shared with guests at the … Continue reading →
For January: Dreams and Repetitions In this month of the inauguration of a new president of our country, it seems particularly appropriate and important to study the orators of our great nation who called out for freedoms we enjoy. Reading the words of Dr. King, Thomas Jefferson and Barack Obama, we can experience the power … Continue reading →
[Note: I originally posted the following article in December, 2007. Itâs holiday preparation time again and lists keep us sane. They can also keep us writing! Try the exercise I am suggesting based on writing lists poems. Try it more than once during this season of shopping lists, invitation lists and gift lists.] You might … Continue reading →
What is a prose poem? âIt is a piece of writing in prose having obvious poetic qualities, including intensity, compactness, prominent rhythms, and imagery.â â Chrome Browser Link. Why write it? âBaudelaire used prose poems to rebel against the straitjacket of classical French versification. He dreamed of creating âa poetic prose, musical without rhyme or … Continue reading →
Robert Epstein has invested years in conceiving and writing books, among them a series of impressive haiku anthologies. This National Poetry Month, I am delighted to post an interview with him that gets to the heart of how haiku connects us to the sacred and demonstrates what we come to poetry for â to understand and to share … Continue reading →
Before appointments, when a meeting hasnât started, when a bus hasnât come, when a friend is late, when you have finished something and still have time before the next thing in your day, when you arrive early to work â do you write or reflexively check your email or text a friend or leaf through … Continue reading →
This, my second week in Denmark visiting my daughter and her family, I continued with my idea of writing more poetry in form. I flipped through the book my younger grandson, who had used it in third grade, had given me, A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, and stopped on … Continue reading →
I am in Denmark for the month of August visiting my daughter and her family. She and her husband are here working, and the international school my grandsons attended is out for the summer. My job is being nanny, but itâs more like company, for the boys. An enthusiastic traveler, Emily makes sure weekends are full. On my first … Continue reading →
Christine Hemp offers us her thinking about how we may find our prose and poetryâs true subjects followed by a writing exercise for practice and two sample poems. [This article and exercise were originally published in Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism and Creative Nonfiction Exercises from Todayâs Best Writers and Teachers, from Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, edited by Sherry … Continue reading →
This week I am posting poems by three more poets whose work I have been following. Each has offered words about the creation of the particular poem included. And, as before, youâll find writing ideas from me based on each of the poems. Let these poems live inside of you for a bit after reading … Continue reading →
We present three poets, offering one of their poems along with words about its creation. My writing ideas are each based on one of the poems and are useful whether you are writing poetry or prose.
National Poetry Month started yesterday. This weekâs article is an oldie but goodie, originally published in 2007 and updated for 2014. In Port Townsend, the daffodils have been up several weeks. As usual out here, it looks like weâll get rain this next week and certainly lots during the month of April, but I remind … Continue reading →
Three accomplished writers have as editors acquired a collection of essays in The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders in which poets explore the way their journeys to foreign lands helped them add to literatureâs great conversation. Susan Rich, one editor of the three, whose newest poetry collection Cloud Pharmacy is just out from … Continue reading →
In choosing Beth Spencerâs poem, âThe Shipwreck Coast,â as the fall/winter Writing It Real contest third place winner, guest judge Molly Tinsley wrote: âYes, poetry is memoirâat least in the case of this intriguing narrative poem. I loved the resolutely unpoetic, sardonic voice. Again, the emotional control over deeply painful material impressed me. We have all … Continue reading →
A few years ago, Kathy Lockwood, one of my distance learning students, was having trouble writing poems because she was moving. She had to clean out and reduce her belongings, pack things up and move on, though she and her husband werenât exactly sure where his work would be taking them. When she called for help, … Continue reading →
In an essay William Matthews wrote as a contribution to my anthology The Writerâs Journal: 40 Writers and Their JournaIs, later reprinted in Keeping a Journal You Love, the late poet suggested that a journal âenÂcourages scrappiness. Things neednât be finished, just stored, the way one might âstoreâ a five-dollar bill in a trouÂser pocket in the closet … Continue reading →
As adults, we are so used to summarizing and editorializing. We have learned that abstractions are considered âsmartâ in writing and having opinions makes us sound even smarter. Thatâs what our teachers wanted from us on papers and on essay tests. But creative writing, whether that is in poetry, fiction, personal essay or in longer … Continue reading →
âGrandma, do you know what limericks are? I wrote one today. Do you want to hear it?â my 11-year-old grandson Toby asked after telling me about a guest poetâs visit to his fifth grade classroom. Of course, I wanted to hear it. Toby recited: In the Sounds of the Night In the sounds of the … Continue reading →
Nancy Smiler Levinson set herself the goal of writing about what she was living through during her husbandâs diagnosis of Alzheimerâs. The result was a powerful, filled with love, and ultimately affirming memoir, all in free verse, Moments of Dawn: a poetic memoir of love & family, affliction & admiration.  A professional writer for decades, Nancy … Continue reading →
April is National Poetry Month. That means nationwide, the month of April is filled with even larger numbers of poetry related events than other months of the year. Hopefully, reading about them in your local newspapers and on websites will encourage you to attend, and listening to poets will spark your interest in participating in … Continue reading →
Robert Komishane is a Port Townsend, WA poet who turned in middle age to rap and hiphop for inspiration when he wanted to switch from writing free verse to writing in form. Four and a half yearâs later, heâs still having fun and gaining attention for his efforts. I interviewed Robert via email to learn … Continue reading →
The recent Writing It Real contest provided the opportunity for people to write about the world around them, send in a draft, receive my responses for help in revising, and then re-enter a revision for our final judge, Betsy Howell. In selecting Diane Druryâs poem âExpect It in the Casino,â Betsy wrote: Not all memoir … Continue reading →
In our spring/summer Writing It Real contest, writers and poets sent in writing inspired by the world around them. Thatâs a broad topic as we might be looking at the world close up and intimately or from afar. In selecting winners in our spring/summer Writing It Real contest, final judge Betsy Howell wrote of Mary … Continue reading →
Most of us find it hard sometimes to believe that the specifics of what we see, taste, touch, smell and hear relate our inner perceptions and feelings (or those of our characters) without explanation. We may be writing with specifics and then, without realizing it, begin to explain and annotate, argue and attempt to persuade … Continue reading →