Our question this week comes from Katie: Help me/us understand what makes something poetry -”A Poem?” Wow, this could take all week! But let me think a minute. Here are a few definitions I’ve hauled around with me for some time: Poetry is the rhythmic, imaginative expression of intense perceptions of the world. The key…

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland A head cold is not big deal, but it does change the worldview for a while. As in, I turn on the TV, a rare thing for me. Between the coughing and the sneezing, etc., I am not much good for anything by the end of the day. So I take the…

Today’s question comes from a conversation I had on Saturday at a writerly event. A woman seated at my table said that she has a book of inspirational poems that she has considered publishing. None of these poems have been published anywhere, and that set  my check-engine light blinking. If no one but family and…

  For several days now I have struggled to get my work done. True, a visit yesterday to Caribou Coffee yielded a pretty good revision of a poem I’ve wanted to finish. Often a change of view will do that, give my battery a little jolt. This morning, though, I slogged through my journal, forced…