Notes on Identity and Literature By David Mason, WTP Guest Writer “The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys to the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will.” —Czeslaw Milosz “When I was a…
Category: on poetry
Explicating the Poetic Process
“My writing process saves a fair percentage of time for self-doubt and lack of artistic confidence.” By Amy Nawrocki, WTP Guest Writer It starts with an encounter. There is a notarized mammal, a dead serpent, and a preserved misspelling. Then a mythical flash of inspiration, the grabbing for tool and template, and the clumsy yet…
The Broadsided Press Story
“I wanted to see what I could do to move poems out into a more public arena.” By Jennifer Nelson, WTP Feature Writer Broadsided Press came about when, after earning her MFA in poetry, Elizabeth Bradfield longed to keep alive that sense of a literary community. She wanted to feel as deeply engaged with the…
A Visit With Donald Hall
Where a Poet Lives By Joyce Peseroff, Contributing Editor Donald Hall used to have his own zip code. So prodigious was his correspondence, it overwhelmed the Danbury, New Hampshire, post office where his mail was delivered. Later, his mailing address switched to Wilmot, and he grudgingly obtained an email address for his assistant. But he…
A Poet’s Inspiration: Place as Fluidity
“For the future of my writing, I imagine my poetry in perpetual evolution” By Lisa Stice Read her work in WTP Vol. V #3 Inspiration for writing can come from many places, but for me as a poet it is drawn from place quite literally—through the years, place has become a fluidity and a learning…
Knowing "Bill" Knott
The Man, and the Poet By Caitlin E. Krause Read her work in WTP Vol. IV #10 “Only you can resurrect the present. People need your voice to come among them like nakedness, to fuse them into one marching language in which the word . “peace” will be said for the last time. Write slogans, write…
Our Friend Phillip
An Unexpected Blog From Phillip Lopate By Ned Stuckey-French This past February, at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Washington, DC, I went to a panel about how to follow one’s train of thought in a piece of writing. The panelists included my friends Phillip Lopate and Sarah Einstein, and after…
On Anna Akhmatova-Perseverance and Poetry
By Caitlin E. Krause See her work in WTP Vol. IV #10 The entire volume of Anna Akhmatova’s work — translations, pictures, personal letters, poems, notes — is staggering. There’s so much to touch upon, and react to, in her life and writing. Reading her is an exercise in mindfulness, what in my view, involves an empathy that art,…
Poetry and News
Tweets can Be Poems, Too By Joyce Peseroff, Contributing Editor After 18 months of retirement, I finally unpacked the last box of books from my office at UMass Boston. I found books by colleagues; duplicate volumes of collected poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, and Jane Kenyon (I absolutely needed both at home and at…
Review: Salena Godden's LIVEwire
“This is not a Eulogy” by Jo Ely, Contributing Editor Poetry conveyed in album form is a natural extension of a thriving UK performance scene, of poets collaborating with other artists and sometimes musicians. It should be no surprise that poet Salena Godden, author of Springfield Road, Fishing in the Aftermath, and contributor to The…
From Novelist to Poet
On Logophilia and Process By Stephen Mead See his work in Vol IV. #7 Just as some have a natural proclivity for math or sports, I have had one for actual words since an early age. “Chrysalis” was a particular favorite, the name of an old Jethro Tull record – I remember the icon on the…
Poet Activists
Poets Speak Out By Michael Dickel [dropcap]A[/dropcap] few years ago, poet activist Michael Rothenberg contacted me. He asked if I would be willing to organize an event for the world-wide 100,000 Poets for Change (100TPC) Day. He and his partner, Terri Carrion, began 100TPC organically five years ago, which means a couple of years before…