writing – A Wandering Minstrel

Emptiest

In my last post, I talked about a poem I was working on that ended up being two poems. One poem was a tanka, a Japanese poetic form; the other is a poem I entitled “Emptiest”, whose form took shape as I wrote it. First, a couple stanzas naturally ended with “empty breast” and “emptyContinueContinue reading “Emptiest”

Silent Film

The writing process is a source of mystery. I’m constantly surprised by how inspiration comes, how ideas develop, and by the interplay of various elements: intuition, reason, structure, prayer, and serendipity. After years of trying my hand at creative pursuits, I feel more participant than master. To be sure, learning craft and improving skills areContinueContinue reading “Silent Film”

Every Dogma Has Its Day

As you’ll see, today’s poem started with a gut feeling (no pun intended). From there, I let myself free-associate, which led to synthesizing dog-related idioms into a new thought. Free associating is an approach to writing I’ve been trying lately. It’s just one tool and doesn’t always lead to a finished poem. But when itContinueContinue reading “Every Dogma Has Its Day”

Flower

One thing I appreciate about writing is that it gives me an imaginative space to explore and process emotions—all kinds of emotions. In this space, I try to encounter what I’m experiencing non-judgmentally. Emotions aren’t always neat, tidy, or pretty. Art aims to re-present experience in a way that is honest but crafted and beautiful.ContinueContinue reading “Flower”

Imago

Today is Easter Sunday, the end of Holy Week, when Christians remember Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. Today’s poem, “Imago”, is from my fifth book, Voiceless Choirs: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. Writing always involves a bit of mystery. Sometimes I get intuitions and pursue ideas without realizing their full depth. Much of that IContinueContinue reading “Imago”

Writing with Andrew

As a parent, I’m a cliche. My kids say I live under a rock. This is the charge whenever I don’t know something about pop culture, current events, or…you name it. When it comes to the internet, I’m not a native like my kids. The web is something I use as a tool, not somethingContinueContinue reading “Writing with Andrew”

Street View

This week, I tallied poems and determined I have enough to work on self-publishing my next book, A Song of Glass. I’d like to add one more poem, and I need to write an introduction. Then I can start the (often arduous) process of setting the book up in Amazon’s self-publishing platform. Poetry is oftenContinueContinue reading “Street View”

The Clock Ticks

Writing is a process that even writers find mysterious. There’s no one way to write. Every poem is its own journey, and I’m usually discovering what a poem is as much as writing it. There are also many ways to approach writing. Often I start with an experience or idea I want to capture inContinueContinue reading “The Clock Ticks”

The Pantoum

I’ve been learning about a new poetic form: the pantoum. This is a Malaysian form consisting of quatrains (four line sections or stanzas); the second and fourth lines in one stanza become the first and third lines of the following stanza. The first and third lines of the first stanza are then repeated as theContinueContinue reading “The Pantoum”

A Poetry Handbook—Mary Oliver

Last year, my wife gave me a volume of poems by Mary Oliver, who quickly became a favorite poet. While looking through her books on Amazon, I discovered she wrote a couple books about reading and writing poetry. I picked up A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. This book isContinueContinue reading “A Poetry Handbook—Mary Oliver”