POWER OF POETRY #34: “Some Slightly Connected Thoughts on Crafted Vulnerability, Stage Fright, Beauty, and Gratitude” – STEVIE EDWARDS
I am trying to write poems that stand inside of uncertainty and still find things to praise. And I don’t think it matters if I praise my sore legs that keep walking me home from work each night, or if I praise the relief of night rain in my first Carolinian July, or if I praise an idea of a home I miss, or if I praise the mild infection in my right nipple for not being cancer, or if I praise my friend who has stomach cancer but keeps living beyond the rational limits doctors have suggested—it is all praising living. It is all beholding the terrible beautiful uncertainty of being human and saying thank you. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than gratitude, and poetry helps me to access it.
POETS ON POETS #1: “Muriel Rukeyser’s “Calling” and the Power of Poetry” – JOANNA PENN COOPER
Faith is found here, not in a destiny raiding and parceling out knowledge and the earth, but in a people who, person by person, believes itself. Do you accept … Continue reading
REVIEW: BACKCHANNEL – EMILY SKILLINGS (POOR CLAUDIA)
I untouch you and move headfirst into the couches of this unholy season I read. A lot. There are times I regret that. Say, if the person I’m seeing is … Continue reading
POWER OF POETRY #2 – EBONY STEWART
“Power of Poetry” by EBONY STEWART I remember being eight or nine when my parents finally got divorced. Or should I say, when my mother finally gathered all … Continue reading
Perception in the Water
Beauty is a collection of insecurities that someone, long ago, successfully passed off as desirable. We rarely hear people say that someone is beautiful for a reason that they think … Continue reading
The Daily Prompt – March 13 – The Beauty of Music
Rules: 1. Use the prompt in the way it’s intended (starting a sentence, the title of the piece, theme, etc) 2. You may write in any format you see fit (fiction, non-fiction, … Continue reading
QOTD – How Do You Feel About Poetry?
In its inception, the poetry question was simple: is poetry relevant in the 21st century. Through our meandering exploration of the written word it has become more… or less, depending … Continue reading
Poems for Fathers
Here are a few of my favorite “Father” poems. If you have a good one, please share it in the comment section. My Papa’s Waltz BY THEODORE ROETHKE The whiskey on … Continue reading
QOTD – Do You Hear The People Sing?
I composed this tweet while driving1 to my step-father-in-law’s2 retirement from the Missouri Air National Guard. 2. I usually refer to him as Bill to avoid … Continue reading
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Truth and Beauty in Magical Realism
March 6, 1927 – April 17, 2014 For some reason I didn’t read One Hundred Years of Solitude until my sophomore year of college. I was taking a class on … Continue reading →