The Poetic Drift

More highly regarded journals and paying publications can receive thousands of submissions in response to an open submission call. An editor has to conclude their selection process somewhere. If they’ve narrowed it down to ten best but need to choose two, things we think are "of little concern" as poets become magnified.  We all want to believe our poems will be evaluated for literary merit alone, not summarily discarded from failure to follow guidelines. But when poems of cl

I had the privilege on January 19th to sit down with fabulous local poet, Linda Quinlan, for her interview show, "All Things LGBTQ." We had a couple of false starts with technical problems trying to record on Zoom, so we finally brought it to the studio in Montplier, Vermont to complete the interview. We had a fun time chatting about poetry in general, my process, and I had a chance to read a few of my poems. It will air tomorrow, Saturday January 23rd, at 8PM on ORCA, Onion

I was invited as the feature poet for a poetry group at the Charlotte Grange on January 8th in Charlotte, Vermont. Pronounced, "Shar-LOTTE" here in the great state of Vermont. I read for about 40 minutes to this really wonderful, friendly and welcoming group of poets, who meet once a month with a featured reader, followed by an open mic. After my reading there were questions from the listeners, and they had really good ones. I enjoyed this experience so much, and if you live

On Sunday the 28th of December, 2025, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rick Agran, host of Radio Bon Mot, on WGDR, to read from my new book of poetry, Breaking . Breaking , in spite of, or stemming from, the title, is really about love. Love of self, family, nature, and, of course, romantic love. I had the chance to talk with Rick about my poetry writing process, read from both this book and my chapbook, Untangling the Knots , as well as read some new poems. Here is th

We’ve all had the experience of reading a poem and not quite “getting” it. Before the written word, poets used certain tools that facilitated memorization and live performance, and also directed the reader toward "getting it." Early set forms of poetry were pleasing to the ears and their appearance on a page delightful to see. Today poems are still performed, but “writing poetry” has become the norm, and the forms more fluid and free. Formal or free, poems have certain elemen

I grew up watching PBS and hearing something like this, "This program is brought to you by [list of companies and organizations like the...

Honestly, punctuation in poetry troubles me. Not to the extent I lose sleep over it. But I have  gotten into bed wondering if I’d over or...

Finding a balance between meaning and song in a poem, while still considering syntax and form, presents a poet with a challenge often...

Rhyme’s Rooms: The architecture of poetry, by Brad Leithauser, Knopf, 2022 The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song, by Ellen...

“It was like hearing earth’s final act before crashing into heaven. It was a declaration of love and anguish which spoke to an estranged...

I begin one of my poems called "Morsels" with, "In short," a single line, as would befit a poem about small things. The poem is about...

A review of Cindy Ellen Hill's Wild Earth My grade school education on the sonnet (from sonetto, or "little song") began and ended with...

Poetry does not require metaphor to exist, but metaphor is one of the ways that poetry can be a tool for healing, both for the poet, and...

Pearls of poetry reveal themselves through this impulse to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. And that in itself is...

What is good poetry? Even more importantly, what is bad poetry? Because if there is good there is most certainly bad. And while I did not...

Poetry can access places beyond words when all words fail. This is the great paradox of poetry: Poets arrange words in a particular way...

While I am in no way any sort of authority on haiku, this form has been on my mind lately, as something that greatly influenced my...

On the Origin of Barns Many of us walk a path of disconnection. What does it mean to walk disconnected? It means we have no real sense of...

Mary Oliver was not a great critical success , for reasons given from a sort of nationally institutionalized misogyny to her persistent...