New blog on the block

Susan Rich is cooking up some delicious posts over at The Alchemist's Kitchen, something to help tide us over while we wait for her new book.

Here and gone--to Ohio

Has it really been that long since I posted? I plead work deadlines and poetry readings, rather opposite ends of the spectrum.



Now, for my next adventure, I'm off tomorrow to Bowling Green, Ohio, for Winter Wheat, the Mid-American Review Festival of Writing. On Saturday, I'll be leading a session on one of my favorite subjects: writing poems in a series. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and harvest all the goodness of Winter Wheat.

I won't bring my computer with me, but I will bring my camera (it's on the list), and I hope to have some pictures when I return west.

Inviting your reader to the poem

A while back, VioletWrites made a comment about how when she sits down to write, her muse always joins her. That made me wonder whether I ever invite my muse to a writing session. Do I? Do you?

I hope she'll show up, but do I consciously inviter her? I don't think so.

Recently I've been rereading Lynda Hull, and I've noticed that not only do her poems often move from a present observation to a past experience, but that she often if not always has another person in the poem.

She is speaking to someone, whether it's a someone from her past or an undefined You or a clearly defined You as the reader. It's a part of her voice, a part of the way she comes to writing and sorting through the various truths. And that You, no matter who it is, helps invite me as a reader into the poem.

It's given me something to think about.

Two paths of my life have crossed

Poetry meets tech (or tech becomes smitten with poetry).

Either way, I'm surprised no circuit breakers were tripped.

I received an email message from Michael Douma regarding a Web exhibit of "Poetry through the ages" that highlights a form called node poetry, complete with a node map of the entire site. Very technical, very 21st century, and it's fun to play with (although I couldn't find the part that was Sapphic-specific, and I need more scrolling or a higher screen resolution).

Take a look. What do you think?