Poetry Corner

Poetry Corner (Spring 2008)

I once read that the mind is like an endless video-tape—recording every sensation, thought, feeling, memory, action, fear, taste, et al in the course of the human experience. And, if that is so, then the substance of who we are is surely influenced by the sum of those experiences. And if we believe this, it follows that when we nourish our minds with qualities that deepen our character and enrich our souls we have chosen a wise direction.

Poetry Corner (Christmas 2008)

To my mind language has never been more exalted than when Saint John penned the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Language, conversation, letters, emails, communication, poetry, fiction, and other uses of the word or words, therefore, should not be used with lightness or in a thoughtless, uncaring way.

Poetry Corner (Spring/Summer 2010)

Two major poets were together one evening, Robert Lowell and John Berryman. Lowell asked Berryman to give him the six best lines in English poetry. At first Berryman resisted and called Lowell’s challenge absurd, insisting such a task was impossible. But as the night deepened Berryman’s resistance wore down.

Easter and the Jesus Seminar (Spring/Summer 2011)

When language lacks the power of metaphor, it is too direct, too shallow, too narrow. Its focus makes the audience go away saying, “Well, yes, I can see that, that makes perfect sense.” When instead we should go away saying, “I wonder what that means for me?”

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2011)

Has language become too familiar? Too anesthetizing? Too comforting? Do we soften the meaning of words by making them sound less offensive?

Poetry Corner (Spring/Summer 2012)

The playwright, Will Welch, in one of his plays, has his protagonist, Roger, say to his sister Mabel...

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2012)

In the most recent chapbook of my poetry, I wrote a poem about THE BODY. I meant to convey the notion that the body is a declining gift. It won’t be around forever. It has so much to teach us. It should not be despised, but cherished!

Poetry Corner (Spring/Summer 2013)

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2013)

Some prose is so full of meaning and emotion, its words and matter—so incarnated in its writing, penned with such artistry and heart—that to merely call it prose is to present it to the reader as less than it is. At the very least it is prose-poetry.

Poetry Corner (Spring/Summer 2014)

Theodore Roethke, a superb teaching poet who influenced many contemporary poets and during the fifties and sixties taught at the University of Washington, wrote in his book On the Poet and His Craft (1965)...

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2014)

I suspect the reason the Romantic Poets (Shelly, Byron, Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Blake, Burns, etc.) are high on my list of literary favorites is their strong association with nature. I find there is healing when nature is present: – when I am walking on a mountain path or in the woods or by the water – there is healing and there is Joy, – that unmerited inward grace that falls over you when songbirds, or the nearby pond with its night noises – are the only sounds you hear.

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2015)

One afternoon my imagination was subpoenaed to focus only on poetry.

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2016)

Backlash of Goodness / An Editorial Evening

Poetry Corner (Fall/Winter 2017)

Poems: LXIV, Bewildered Kingdom, and A Quandary