“The Ease of Wind-Filled Wings”: A Review of Luanne Castle’s Rooted and Winged #poetry #bookreview

I always review a book of poetry with some anxiety and exhilaration; anxiety because poetry is in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder, and exhilaration because poetry is in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder. I'd argue that I don't know what "good" poetry is, only that if I like it, I like it. That's…

Reaching for the Stars: Prose Poem? #MondayBlogs #yoga

I felt the staccato snap of each vertebrae in my spine as I lengthened and then twisted my torso in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) and wondered how much longer I could keep looking up at the ceiling before I lost all feeling in my neck. The yogi urges me to take two more waves of breath…

A Traditional Kind of Book Review: Bird Light by Elizabeth Cohen #MondayBlogs #bookreview #poetry

Poetry is like pornography: I know it when I see it. Or read it if you want to be picky. Or maybe it's an acquired taste, something you have to be trained to learn to like. Gin martinis might be an acquired taste, but in my case, I took to a gin martini the way…

Prose Poems: A Question and An Answer #poetry #MondayBlogs

For my online poetry class last week, we discussed the "prose poem."  Now I remember from (way) back in the day when I was intrigued by prose poems because they seemed less intimidating than the usual poetry forms.  Prose poems seemed more like writing flash fiction or flash nonfiction.  Something I could do without having…

A Long Slog #poetry #MondayBlogs

As some of you may know, I am taking an online poetry writing course through the University of Iowa (FREE!).  Just finished Week 3.  Being that the course is FREE, students have the option to do as little or as much as they want.  But if you want a certificate of participation, you have a…

Poem: She Burned Bright #Mondayblogs #poetry

The following poem was published on The Community Storyboard way back in June 2013.  I confess this re-post is in part because I'm at a loss for new material.  The well runneth dry at the moment.  But another reason is because I'm preparing to take a free online class on how to write poetry.  The…

May Wonders Never Cease to Exist

Although I occasionally write poetry, I don't make a fuss about it because I so rarely do it.  And because I'm never quite sure if I should call it poetry.  My poems don't rhyme.  They don't have a recognizable meter or structure (and I don't even know what I mean by that, either).  They don't…

Experimental Poem/Prose: Bonita’s Song

This "experimental" "poem" (feel like I should put both words separated in quotes because I rarely write like this) was previously published on The Community Storyboard. * * * She called me her little Puerto Rican. I was too young to remember, she said.  Not until I was an adult, and she lay on her…

Beowulf and Seamus Heaney

I haven't read much poetry in my life, outside the required English literature classes of my university days.  And yet I was grieved to hear that Seamus Heaney had died.  Many years ago I had gotten an audio of Heaney reading Beowulf.  I had read Beowulf even more years before and fell in love with…

For the Lady Ionia, Queen of the Blogosphere

I have shielded my eyes against her bright beauty, her brilliant wit, her shining soul. I have bowed before her rapier tongue, welcoming the fiery warmth of its lashes against my back. I have kissed the coal-burning footprints she leaves behind as she tours her universe. I am but one of her many minions, grateful…