musings | musings
Oct.26.2009
How Does Poetry Work?
Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, October 8, 2009
Any attempt at answering that question is doomed to be inadequate for the simple fact that what we call poetry varies greatly and works in an incomprehensible range of ways. Nevertheless, as Robert Frost said, “...
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Oct.26.2009
Why Poetry?
Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, August 20, 2009
It’s a question that every poet who has ever been interviewed has been asked and a question that I ask my own writing students every semester. But it may really be two questions. The reasons, after all, for reading...
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Oct.26.2009
Top 10 Reasons to Go to a Poetry Reading
Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, November 13, 2008
In this age of universal literacy, poetry readings might seem a strange concept. Why would one give up an evening of watching The Biggest Loser or Dancing with the Stars to listen to...
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Oct.26.2009
HOW TO READ A POEM
Reprinted from "Musings,"Outlook, August 27, 2009
This one comes in direct response to a reader who wrote to me that he doesn’t read much poetry because it never makes any sense to him. This is not the first time I’ve heard this complaint about poetry...
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Jun.04.2009
I am busily working on a tale of Zombie woe called H1Z1 on my other blog (no offense Red Room) and I find that the tale is growing, all by its own special volition. I am not opposed to this growth, in fact, I encourage it, but at the same time, I find that I am having difficulty keeping my thoughts...
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Oct.30.2008
Is it just me or does it seem as though people have started staying AWAY from the internet? It seems to me that most of my haunts (and I have a LOT) are void of posters.
Maybe it is just that time of year? I don't know but I am hoping that it is just me, this time.
Hey, and is it me or does anyone...
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Oct.03.2008
I cannot completely explain it, but entries about people and their attempts to "deal with" their daily problems never cease to catch my interest. The ones which especially amuse me are of those who give up and choose to sort their thoughts through all sorts of negativity they can muster...
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Jun.25.2008
At night I've been indulging myself with chapters from NEW GRUB STREET, turn of the century novel by George Gissing. The London literary scene he depicts with merciless clarity has such parallels to the contemporary world. On cleanliness: "It is often said by people who are exquisitely...
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Apr.29.2008
Dear Reader,
My agent is hounding me to get a 'real' web page, and it's now my job to prove that Red Room will work just fine. Trouble is, I've no idea.
My first book was just published. My wife loves me a bit more, my kids are proud, my parents glowing, but on the commercial end the story is just...
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Mar.22.2008
Were you to ask me to name my desert island book, I'd be a pain in the ass and demand two, one fiction and one non-fiction. My fiction choice is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It's not necessarily my favorite book, which of course changes every five minutes (my list of...
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