Twelve years ago, after taking a special 1-on-1 poetry mentor class with C. Wade Bentley where I practiced writing free verse poetry, I decided to make a self-study of haiku. As part of that, I finally decided to buy a book I had been eyeing for a year at the local Barnes & Noble “The… Continue reading Reading that book I bought twelve years ago by Stephen Addiss
Category: On Writing
Not for the first time
I’m trying to learn Latin and not for the first time. 7 years ago, I bought a Latin textbook at a used-book store, took it home, and imagined knowing how to read and speak this ancient tongue. At the same time, I took a class on English’s reception of Latin literature, listening to lectures from… Continue reading Not for the first time
A Ghost in the Coffee Shop: A Method for Peer Review
“Are you too deeply Occupied to say if my Verse is alive?” Emily Dickinson wrote with some fervor to the editor of a daily publication. “The Mind is so near itself—it cannot see, distinctly—and I have none to ask—” Writing is best understood as a static text coming into contact with a dynamic mind. When… Continue reading A Ghost in the Coffee Shop: A Method for Peer Review
Whimsy
Due to a general aversion to emotion other than joy in my upbringing, I have a tendency to want to keep things light and funny. Poetry has given me a space to explore my feelings on a broader and more nuanced field, but this tendency for lightness is something that crops up very frequently in… Continue reading Whimsy
Over/Poetry 