Author: Brad Burkholder

Last time, we discussed the narrative line as an essential element of good poetry, the kind of poetry that might find a publisher. That narrative line brings drama into the poem, and, to rephrase Robert Frost again, anything written is only as good as it is dramatic. Drama more or…

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…

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.…

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…

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…