Brad Burkholder
Poet

Meet Brad: Sharing his knowledge of writing poetry.

I’ve written poetry since the early 1970s and learned the craft from great teachers at James Madison University (B.A. 1975), the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (M.F.A. 1975) and Hollins University M.A. 1980). I’ve taught creative writing at J.M.U. and Virginia Western Community College. Now, in my blog, I’m sharing the experience and thoughts that I wish my teachers had shared with me.

Coming Soon

Brad’s book Where the Spirit Led: My Improbable Journey into the Coming Age and What I Learned published by 6th Books is due out in 2025.

Pre-order through Amazon in early 2025.

Recent Blog Posts

  • On Finding the Poet’s Path

    On Finding the Poet’s Path

    Hello, poetry people. Welcome to my first Poetry Path blog. I plan to post once a week, focusing mostly on writing verse. Today I’m adding a picture taken long ago, partly to prove that I haven’t always been older than dirt but also because I want you to consider the…

  • The Narrative Line

    Quite a few years back, I attended a small conference where the primary speaker was a gentleman who published a poetry magazine as well as collections of poems. He talked a bit about form and content and how each needed to complement the other in order to make a truly…

  • Practicing Poetry Through Imitation

    Poetry Blog 4 When we’re a short distance down the poet’s path, most of us try to write in the manner of poets we admire. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a natural part of our progression along the path. At one point I tried to write like James Dickey.…

  • How I Wrote My Latest Poem

    Poetry Blog 3 With 50 years of writing behind me, I’m still learning how to create poems. Recently I wrote a poem that’s a little different from many that I write, and once I had a draft completed and began chipping away at it, trying to improve it line by…

  • Logometrics

    Last time I promised to tell why I call this blog The Poet’s Path rather than The Poets’ Path. After all, it’s our path and we’re poets, so shouldn’t it be the path of all of us instead of the path of one poet? That makes perfectly good sense, and…