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To Pee on the Tree or Not to Pee?
When I walk Duncan the Dog, he reads tree bark the way I read books. He’s not interested in the tree itself, only the messages left by his canine tribe. I don’t know what he learns from his sniffing, maybe something like “Oh, that old lab was here today and that little Pomeranian is pregnant. Wow!” His…
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Revise and Let It Loose
Many hours this past week I prepared to keep a promise to my writing group from Wellfleet that I would be more proactive about submitting work for publication. I have a pretty hefty publications list already, but it’s stale. Prior to the workshop in June I had concentrated on writing new material and didn’t have…
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Do You Duotrope?
Having written poetry for decades, I have about 300 pieces that have not been published, some for good reason, some because I felt overwhelmed tracking and sorting them. In response to the promise I made to myself and the Wellfleet Dozen (twelve women in Marge Piercy’s recent poetry workshop), I spent hours this week updating my…
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What Words Can’t Say
As you read this, I am driving away from Wellfleet, Massachusetts, or maybe I’m in Logan International waiting to board a flight home to Colorado. I cannot give you the whole week I’ve just spent on Cape Cod. Only certain details and they may not be the ones you would like to hear. Generalities like…
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Poems Come from Everywhere
Last week I was journaling about a disagreement with a friend and did not understand my own strong objections to the other side of the issue. So I tossed the problem into my unconscious/subconscious (I never know where these things land.) and decided to sleep on it. As sometimes happens, I woke up from a dream that…
Karen Douglass, Author 