I’m wondering whether it’s possible for the poem both to be self-reflection for you and something, including the witnessed act or aftermath of self-reflection, for the reader. In other words, is it that the […]

The poet Lucie Brock-Broido advised submitting to journals providing the rejections wouldn’t stop you writing (temporarily or otherwise). In other words, there’s no rush, but providing there’s no harm, go for it. […]

This post is almost a poem; several of its sentences are, and “In the event of a hostage situation, I’ll / at least have something to do” is either the end or start of a poem, or both.

Also, I thought you […]

I’d love to see you explore this more, both as reader and writer. Take some poems you’re enjoying and track their tenses: literally annotate each moment tense comes up to see how they move within time, even […]

Fine to word-vomit and move around; these things are connected for you, in some way, even if the connection doesn’t continue. Part of it seems to be, to me, the question of where you’re coming from as a writer, […]

Great post, Lyndsay, and thanks for the additional recommendations, Hannah.

It’s worth remembering that poetry’s roots lie in the oral/aural, that the expectation of poetry has always been that it exists in […]

So much to say here…this might be an office hours conversation, if you’re interested, Hannah.

First, an anthology which tries to bridge the gap you’re identifying:

Second, there’s such an intriguing […]

This is such a perceptive but also thought-provoking comment. Yes, Larkin’s poem becomes only its first two lines, perhaps in part because the last stanza, espousing something close to anti-natalism, is harder to […]

I wonder if you and Troy (see his recent post) might have an interesting conversation about fiction in relation to poetry. You’re both getting at different aspects of why the genres shouldn’t be alien; in his […]

There’s an interesting question about the relationship between form and function here: engineers need to prioritize function, perhaps, and take form (aesthetics) where they can get it. Yet the field or […]

I’m glad to see you thinking about the value of poetry to fiction – I don’t think the study of poetry has to be in the service of the production (or even reading) of poems alone. And we constantly praise fiction […]

Ha! it’s great that your ‘first’ poem is about astrology; that feels fitting. I also think it’s really important that your poems engage with multiple art forms. I’d encourage you towards the poetry of Tyehimba […]

Literary critic Harold Bloom has written that a poem is a response to a poem, and while he means it quite figuratively and psychologically it’s also true literally and it’s been great this semester and last to see […]

Great post, Tanya, and lovely to see the image. (There’s a rich seam of work that combines poetry and collage if you ever want to see your notebook work as more than within the notebook – whether for this class or […]

There’s much to be said for the ways that poetry works parallel to therapy, a kind of talking cure, a process by which impossibilities, while not being reconciled, come into conversation. That’s not to say it’s an […]

Yes – this is an incitement and an excitement, too! This is a beautiful way to engage with the question of where poetry comes from. I’d like to encourage you, if you feel so moved, to think about this piece of […]

Great image of reading and re-reading Green Eggs and Ham! I think there might be something not only to the sound of that book but to its nonsense and, strangely, narrative, that might be compelling for young […]

There’s a lot of rich ideas to interrogate here, Nick; thanks for sharing. I’d encourage you to ponder what it is that makes a poem cryptic: in the case of the Odyssey, for instance, it might less be about how […]

It sounds like we should circle back around to where music (and perhaps film, too) meet poetry in one of our source discussions! There’a whole semester, or lifetime, on that topic, of course.

Kyle, I’m going to […]

This is a lovely narrative to share in, Hannah, and also a revealing one, in that poetry doesn’t have to be associated with music (Ezra Pound saw poetry as the meeting of image, music, and idea; to the extent […]