The Poet’s Path
My Journey with Poetry
Without having any particular reason to do it—except that I felt I had to—I became a poet. You’ve probably never seen a poem I wrote. I never cared about publishing. For most of my life, I’ve said that I write for God first, the dead poets second, and everyone else third. I have worked hard to perfect my craft, and I’ve even invented a type of poetry all my own. I’m not into forcing poetry on people, but in my blogs I’ll tell how being a poet ties in with everything I’ve learned since 1997.
Latest Blog posts
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The Narrative Line, Part 2
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 less equals movement, and movement…
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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 successful poem. Then he discussed…
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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. By the time I entered…
