Schools of Thought and Mine

Joseph Hutchison posted a blog about theory versus experience.  There’s actually quite a debate going on between all these different poets/voices/schools. Each is passionate and right (just ask them!). This blog probably has the best collection of links if you’re interested in the exchange.  You can see my muddled thoughts in the comment stream of [...]

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

I have this fascination with poetry handbooks.  I think it started after receiving my rejection letter to the MFA program at Colorado State. Looking back, the portfolio I submitted was atrocious, but I was still heartbroken. I’ve loved writing since the third grade when I wrote a story and totally ripped off the ending of [...]

The Most American(?)

The January issue of Poetry arrived in the mailbox a couple days ago.  They’re using a glossy cover now, and it feels flimsier. I don’t like it. I liked the matte finish. But hey, it’s time for change and cutting budgets. This issue features three previously unpublished poems by Langston Hughes, and a brief introduction [...]

When Daydreams End

I have uploaded another recording performed at a graduate recital at the University of Northern Colorado. Garrett Hope composed this piece for a men’s quartet. The process of writing this poem was a challenge as Garrett already had the idea to write choral music for a translation of Victor Hugo’s “Tomorrow at Daybreak” but the [...]

Luci Shaw: What the Light Was Like

Just a few problems with Christian art can be seen here and here. I’m not one to criticize somebody’s creative effort in itself, but I think that too many Christians that want to make art (music/literature/paintings/drama/everythingelseIdidn’tmention) get so caught up in forcing their message (most of the time the gospel) that they miss true depth [...]

A Few Tanka

Here are a few Tanka from my collection, Somewhere, Love.
[4]
winter hike
together we make tracks
snow angels
protect the fossil
of today’s memory
[48]
windshield wipers
glide across a glass dancefloor
erasing snow
the morning sun peeks-a-boo
brushing dust from cornfields
[71]
little sparrow
sitting atop budded tree
which composer
filled your tiny lungs
with such expressive tunes
[78]
after the rain
when vapor drifts skyward
a sun beam
glistens from behind your eyes
a kind embrace, [...]

Contemporary Poets: Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott

Issuu.com is a cool place to publish things (I like the viewer better than Yudu.com, but I digress). Over winter break I’m actually going to work on transfering my haiku collection, Summer Leaves, to an online format. Anyways, I just finished reading an interview with Seamus Heaney in the December 08 issue of Poetry Magazine, [...]

Hello Audios

I’d like to start off this post by thanking Joe and Scott for the compliments and links. Joe is a great poet and a great teacher. You can find many of his poems linked on his blog. Scott is a fellow teacher and writer, and if you like video games, check him out.  I mean [...]

A greater purpose for Poetry

When I was a child, my parents often wondered where I came from. Hmm. But really, how does a poet rise from two scientists–my father had a PhD in Geophysics and my mom double majored in math and chemistry. My brother? History (his educational focus, not the state of existence).  So even I can ask [...]

Autumn Haiku

Here’s a haiku (actually a senryu, but who’s counting?) I wrote while my students were working on theirs:
soft splatter
of autumn rain–
a baby sneeze