I want to share a poem that feels appropriate for this moment: Lucille Clifton’s wonderful “the light that came to lucille clifton.” I love this poem at any time, but now it seems especially pertinent. What happens when, as the poem says, our...
Today I want to share a poem, “I, Too,” by Langston Hughes. In this poem, Hughes expresses both the great shame of the inequities built into American life and the potential, beauty and need to change also built into American life. The poem responds to...
I’ve been having a similar conversation with a lot of people recently. It goes something like this: “I’m feeling really overwhelmed” my friend or student says. “I’m really worried. I don’t know what to do and I’m finding...
One of the hardest things we do as writers is balance our writing and the rest of our lives. There are all the practical aspects: how to make time for writing in our already very busy lives? How do we fit writing into our life if we also need to earn money? There is...
I’ve been lucky to spend the past ten days out of the city, spending less time on my computer. We’re renting a house on a lake in Maine and yesterday as I was swimming, a huge bird flew above me, circling and circling, flapping its enormous, graceful wings that seem...
If you are thinking about how to publish a poetry book, I recommend that you read this guide. It will walk you through the important steps of publishing a poetry book and will give you the tools you need, over the long term, to learn how to get poetry published. How...
