English @ SUNY Geneseo | K. Olivia Cockerham | Activity https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/members/koc1/activity/ Activity feed for K. Olivia Cockerham. Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:23:02 -0500 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-US 30 hourly 2 d5f4a9ddc73f4d0d6261236ce2e5e52a K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, "Ramona" by Guster: a desire for intimacy, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10936/ Tue, 23 Oct 2018 11:28:21 -0500 You’re so right — the ’empty’ language you talk about here is so often what we would point out and critique as lacking specificity in a workshop, but it’s done here with purpose. I guess it just shows that you c […]

]]> 0 0ec6dc1f3d3ff7563147740d0839e0b8 K. Olivia Cockerham edited the blog post What we have the right to (ekphrasis, epigraphs, artistic responsibility...) in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10928/ Mon, 22 Oct 2018 04:32:35 -0500 Literature cannot exist in a vacuum. Everything which is written and put out into the world is a product of a history of other works; it comments on, and is shaped by the culture and context which created. I’ve b […]

]]> 0 7410d2eab624cb3ecaf5b8e6a4082f41 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, ra/p/oetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10809/ Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:38:37 -0500 I’m not sure how I missed this post when it went up, but I’m very grateful to have this playlist. I’m not a big rap listener, but there’s no reason that can’t change. It’s good to have a place to start.

]]> 0 32838424b0ec278d6b738988325308df K. Olivia Cockerham edited the blog post So you want me to write a Villanelle: Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” and other obsessive verses in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10808/ Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:13:27 -0500 Looking through the feedback I received in my last workshop, no less than three people made note that they’d be interested to see me write a villanelle. I will be honest, before being reminded of the form when w […]

]]> 0 c29aa07d4ef34a2394838c5272ed3d7c K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, Regret, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10807/ Mon, 01 Oct 2018 23:37:20 -0500 Connor —
As a fifth year student who is spending the whole semester with a looming sense of “oh, my time here is up,” I feel you. And I’ll extend you the same offer: to email me any time, or strike up a c […]

]]> 0 624bbc380570f56ea62310377dde96cc K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, for the stuck, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10702/ Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:50:54 -0500 That sounds like such a cool book to use for random inspiration. I think I can recommend something that strikes a similar chord: a little book I picked up over the summer called “The Secret Lives of Colour” by […]

]]> 0 f5ddaf7bfd4e9a9100c038a027693d34 K. Olivia Cockerham edited the blog post Poetry, community in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10700/ Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:27:51 -0500 I’m a talker; I like to talk. I’m also a fan of thinking out loud, discovering thoughts and ideas as I say them —  very often it feels like the space between a thought and the words hanging in the air are indist […]

]]> 0 95cd57d6be4e803928abea34e3b85b75 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, How the Words Won't Stop Hip-Hopping in my Head, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10699/ Tue, 18 Sep 2018 18:35:46 -0500 I feel like it’s less ‘frowned upon’ and more ‘avoided.’

I’ve always been tentative to really lean into rhyme in my poems. Generally, I worry that it’ll wind up sounding hokey or contrived.

What it comes […]

]]> 0 fc304ab5435d8d38e85c1db173467211 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, Reflections on Form, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10632/ Wed, 12 Sep 2018 20:21:07 -0500 Once, in the midst of a frazzled end-of-semester portfolio-editing powwow, I asked a peer poet how she did it. She had poems with words that trailed across the page, long cavernous spaces in the middle of lines. […]

]]> 0 9787c64cfcf39ba19ec6b6fb25a5eb84 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, My New Favorite Author, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10608/ Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:44:41 -0500 I know this posting is about the book of poetry (and I am very much inclined to pick it up, especially after meeting and enjoying a workshop with TC Tolbert— I love to see the poetry that poets like to read) but I […]

]]> 0 53a572ecf9cd848d04c28816888823e7 K. Olivia Cockerham wrote a new blog post What to workshop: the dead-end poem in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10522/ Tue, 04 Sep 2018 19:17:52 -0500 Being in the first round of workshops, I’ve spent the week picking through this summer’s sparse drafts, trying to decide if it is disingenuous to try and spruce one up just a few days in advance.

I have fou […]

]]> 0 b9516a5b9961c6b417e90e696397cfb3 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, The Creative Process: It's All Greek to Me, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10520/ Tue, 04 Sep 2018 18:37:34 -0500 I understand the ‘drought’ completely.

It seems counterintuitive, because people don’t think of ‘art’ in these terms, but it very often seems like the best things come out of routine, not spontaneity. We think […]

]]> 0 e770280bb68e1dc8e24cb2dcb61fe4b6 K. Olivia Cockerham wrote a new blog post Sometimes revision is taping six versions of a poem to the wall in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9327/ Thu, 14 Dec 2017 20:30:10 -0500

]]> 0 acda80892f21f02ecfa801601ccda5d0 K. Olivia Cockerham wrote a new blog post Please, Frankenstein was my father…. in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9224/ Sun, 10 Dec 2017 18:15:18 -0500 I’ve been thinking about my last workshop piece. It felt like two poems stitched together, and that’s because it was. I lean heavily on certain aesthetics and imagery we all already know I have a soft spot for […]

]]> 0 dd152dff739f99705730d9558a337085 K. Olivia Cockerham edited the blog post Revision Note to Self in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9186/ Thu, 07 Dec 2017 23:37:48 -0500 “the em dash is a people pleaser and will not turn down any of your numerous requests to use it even when its presence is not needed which is why you must be the adult in that relationship”
– J.P. Brammer

]]> 0 4c73ed99dee8227c7d00765889989492 K. Olivia Cockerham edited the blog post I think you all should know that I’ve been plundering your poems in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/8975/ Sun, 03 Dec 2017 00:50:02 -0500 As you all know, our class shares a folder via Google Drive, and cached within are our writing exercises, all neatly tucked away in folders labeled with each poet’s name. Of course the point of all this is to share our work, so on some level it’s obvious – any one of you is free to see what I’ve been writing, and vice versa.

Yet I can’t h…[Read more]

]]> 0 e56e361724ec7f70f03c0b7a68776eec K. Olivia Cockerham wrote a new blog post Empty emails and blank word documents in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9139/ Sun, 03 Dec 2017 00:42:32 -0500 At twenty-one years old I’ve yet to send a single email that took me less than fifteen minutes to write.

After shooting off a careless email (because I’m tired and I have things to do) I sit, bleary eyed and […]

]]> 0 c7f7e07b0790f7d5d20bcc4d42d2a004 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, Getting out of your own way--, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2017/11/13/getting-out-of-your-own-way/#comment-10782 Tue, 14 Nov 2017 19:33:55 -0500 An anecdote:

I sent this series of texts to my friend the other day, in the middle of writing a scene taking place in a car.

4:47pm: is the whole area in front of the driver/passenger in a car called the […]

]]> 9e4b09ee9d5a5c849e126924091680c1 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, paying homage, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2017/11/11/paying-homage/#comment-10777 Mon, 13 Nov 2017 18:29:58 -0500 Epigraphs are one of those literary devices that I tend to think of as beyond me. Other, better poets might put them to good use, but in my own hands I find the end result clunky, or corny, not poignant enough to […]

]]> 689ff0f61a6016c59f69e2b5616152fa K. Olivia Cockerham's profile was updated https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/8945/ Sun, 05 Nov 2017 21:04:03 -0500 0 7789c2cfe72442d76fa458c45cb9e60a K. Olivia Cockerham changed their profile picture https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/8944/ Sun, 05 Nov 2017 21:02:37 -0500 0 bcde1d5c196cd25b4fcae1ba4baacc78 K. Olivia Cockerham commented on the post, line break (up), on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2017/11/05/line-break-up/#comment-10723 Sun, 05 Nov 2017 20:52:03 -0500 Grace –

Burn them.

Or, if you’re worried about the fire hazard, tear them up. Drown them in your kitchen sink (and be sure to use a pen that bleeds so you can watch the words turn to Rorschach blobs). The […]

]]> 3502d32dc5778192c2d28cc1f8999500 K. Olivia Cockerham joined the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/8881/ Tue, 24 Oct 2017 22:33:25 -0500 0 5d52136c39cd9af5c68064140a9a96ee K. Olivia Cockerham changed their profile picture https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/5965/ Mon, 08 Feb 2016 05:50:28 -0500 0 116ec6e0246877ba34c945352f63afd3 K. Olivia Cockerham changed their profile picture https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/5964/ Mon, 08 Feb 2016 05:49:16 -0500 0 0b5ae722d05d87b2f0e469e93da668d1 K. Olivia Cockerham changed their profile picture https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/5963/ Mon, 08 Feb 2016 05:33:38 -0500 0 4017acdb8dd33c8ef5459ab754632a86 K. Olivia Cockerham became a registered member https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/3343/ Fri, 24 Oct 2014 05:09:49 -0500 0