In my earlier post on poem starters, I promised I’d write a second article on handling one word prompts. Well, here I am, being as good as my word. One word prompts abound on the Internet, from my 100 Themes challenge to the Wednesday prompts on Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog. They’re a great challenge because they force you to … Read more
It’s no joke to say that poetry keeps us alive. I suppose you could say the same of any beautiful thing — or, to be more precise, any truly beautiful thing. That could be art, music, Creation, or simply a smile. Beauty is part of what makes life worth living. It can lift the soul and give it … Read more
Foreign language? … Say what? Trust me, it’s not as crazy as it sounds, nor as far out of reach as you may think. Let me make one thing clear, right from the beginning: you don’t need to speak like a native, or even have advanced foreign language skills. You simply need to know enough to string together coherent … Read more
Rekindling a sense of wonder … that’s the key to getting back your creativity and breaking writer’s block. You can’t force wonder, though — especially not while you’re living on coffee and anxiety and listening too much to the Inner Critic. You have to step back and let yourself play. But how? Let me introduce you to someone … Read more
I swear there’s an Ent seeding in my imagination. These days all I can think about is trees. I photograph trees, poem trees, and contemplate trees. Basically, I can go outside and stare at trees for an uncannily long time. Not surprisingly, then, trees ended up starring in my fifth 100 Themes poem, which had a theme … Read more