Poetry

Why Poetry Is Not So Scary After All

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Years ago, when I was a full-time volunteer teacher at a Chicago homeless women’s shelter, I read Maya Angelou poems with the women every afternoon — and they were the ones that formally introduced me to her. At the end of my time, as a going-away [...]

April 20, 2011 CONTINUE READING →

On TEDxEast, Early Mornings and Urban Oyster’s Coolness

These past few weeks have been a true mosaic of events, activities, chance run-ins with cool people, planned run-ins with cooler people. This past week, I met up with the folks from TEDxEast (NYC’s independent version of TED – I also attended the last TEDxEast in May). In the first 5 minutes of meeting people, [...]

November 13, 2010 CONTINUE READING →

From Cupcakes to Mosaics: Some Poetry for the People

Who would have thought poetry possible? Certainly not me, the business writer, the essay creator, the creative journalist at heart and by practice. But alas, our writing evolves and it should. Poetry is groovy and we all can do it. Not long ago, I took Sage Cohen’s Poetry for the People course – an fascinating [...]

September 10, 2010 CONTINUE READING →

On Historical Backdrops, The Red Tent and The Brubury Tales Giveaway

Weaving elements of history into writing, whether through stories or style, is undeniably a skill of brilliant magicians. I have three copies of The Red Tent. One I bought for myself. The second was from a friend who went to an author reading and sent me a signed copy from Anita Diamant. No idea where [...]

June 19, 2010 CONTINUE READING →

Beyond Blogging: Just Do It

Picture this. It was a bitter cold Friday night in Chicago, just over a year ago. I didn’t feel like getting slapped in the face with a rather wicked wind chill so it was a Hot Pocket night for me. I spent the entire weekend indoors building my blog. There wasn’t any particular impetus to [...]

February 12, 2010 CONTINUE READING →

Scream a Song

A guest post by Greg Freed. You can follow Greg on Twitter. One of my favorite pastimes is to collect information from writers about writing. Whether the insights come in the form of interviews, essays, books, or word of mouth, I love logging the tidbits away for my own personal use. I see on social [...]

August 7, 2009 CONTINUE READING →

The Art of Listening

A guest post by Frank Mundo. You can follow Frank on Twitter. I used to think prose poetry was a scam, the literary equivalent of madly dripping or wildly flinging paint onto a canvas as art. Prose poetry, it seemed to me, was at best the product of the creative intellectual exercises of people way [...]

August 3, 2009 CONTINUE READING →

Writing the Life Poetic: Sage Cohen Interview

As we near the end of National Poetry Month, I’m very happy to feature my interview with award-winning poet Sage Cohen and her new book, Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry. Not only is Cohen widely published, she has taught poetry at universities, hospitals and writing conferences. Cohen received a [...]

April 27, 2009 CONTINUE READING →