Intoxicated by End Rhyme That first high, and you crave another and another… While I love the flexibility and potential for subtlety in free verse, I am not at all against poems composed in metre and end rhyme. It’s just that they are more difficult to write well than many who attempt it
Quick Quote “It is a great thing to write. To be no longer yourself, but to move in an entire universe of your own creation.” —Gustave Flaubert
Seniority (2) Older than Allan Briesmaster and myself by a decade, Christopher Levenson has also written about ageing in his newest collection. The poems admit the inevitable physical deficits of advancing years and the distress as those dear to us pass on, into a memory itself fading. But what happens after the
Seniority (1) Forty years ago, after reading a lot of Canadian poets my age, it dawned on me that the poems of those considerably older might be substantively different. What I loved was a poem about the birth of his first grandchild written by a sophisticated gentleman who had travelled the world
Gems Many years ago I chanced upon Louis MacNeice’s book-length poem Autumn Journal1. Written in 24 sections from August to December 1938, it recorded his state of mind as World War II loomed closer. I loved how the undernotes of coming doom rolled forward with quiet clarity. The lines intentionally
Bird Metre After days of grey skies and rain showers, through 4:00 a.m. stillness burst joyous bird song announcing first glimmers of light. I lay in bed, listening. Not only was the singing lovely, it even had a pattern: one strong long note, followed by two shorter and softer—like
Inspired What prompts us to write a poem? As my thoughts meandered, something flashed back. Years ago discussing my latest volume, the reviewer remarked that many poems appeared to be written as gifts to other people. Many? Curious, I pulled my books off the shelf and listed every poem directed or
Another Dip Dipping again into Charles Bernstein’s intriguing book Poetics, I was delighted to read his resistance to ideology. Following the cultural shock of the Second World War, poetry composition and criticism fell under the sway of Postmodernism, as well as other literary schools of thought such as Black Mountain, and
Time and the Writer Time. Aspiring writers complain they would write “if only” they had the time. Daily life can be crammed with distractions, deadlines, and too much to do, ironically often coupled with feelings of isolation. My favourite fantasy used to be ambling down a tree-lined avenue, quaint with wide lawns and Victorian
Bouncing Off Bouncing off what someone else has written can be an exciting way to inspire a poem. I love what Kris Kaila has done in “Bearing Witness”, posted on a recent Poetry Pause. She begins by quoting Maya Angelou who wants her life to be “a poetic existence”. What a lovely
The Gift of Workshops Over the years I was fortunate to lead many poetry workshops, including with the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, and more than a decade, the Toronto Board’s Continuing Education Department. Taking on the role was a humbling process. First, I had to become self-conscious. How did my
Where Is the Poetry? I am always looking for poetry that transcends the flatness of everyday speech merely cut into lines. What is it that lifts a poem off the page? 1. It awakens multiple senses with imagery, as in from “Autumn” by P. K. Page: Its stain is everywhere. The sharpening air of
The Substance of Space Just as I am picky about the logic of line breaks, spaces in the middle of poetic lines often leave me wondering. Are they visual suggestions of something forgotten, unwanted, or better left unsaid? A slip of the finger on the keyboard? Might they even represent a gasp? If no
Above All A thought for National Poetry Month... Despite moments of self-doubt and the inevitable rejections, never give up. Poetry is a lifelong pursuit, not a craft to be mastered in a year or two, or even through a Creative Writing degree. The poet open to the art’s twists and surprises
Of Place and Time (2) As well as whirling our minds to the other side of the world, the click of a key on Google can help us look back in time. It’s not that we should compose historical poems, but that we have the learning resources to expand our writing through allusion. To
Of Place and Time (1) The Internet is a reminder that poems need not be restricted to our own place and time. In what Marshall McLuhan deemed our tactile age, instant communications rub us against each other within a global village. Of course, we write of our own landscape and people, but why in isolation?
Exercise and the Muse (updated link) When I was a child, on a sunny day, cold or warm, my mother would shoo me outdoors. “Go play. You need fresh air and exercise.” Most of us know that exercise is supposed to be good for us, but when a poem is unfolding well, it’s
2023 Posts A List Arranged in Chronological Order To find a particular post, use the Search function along the top of the web page. Note: Hello Again Commentary: Endorphins and Poetry Commentary: A Little More Gauze (silly stuff) Note: Discovering Form (1), why triads Note: Discovering Form (2), four-line stanzas and pairs
Full Circle As the months advance, more and more of a literary generation has been passing on—and on March 13, Rosemary Aubert. Rosemary was a prolific author of short stories and novels, and twice winner of the prestigious Arthur Ellis Award for her Ellis Portal Mystery Series. Her Obituary (link below)
Reaching Beyond Volume 7, Issue 3, of the triannual Juniper has now been published. What I love about this online journal is its stated editorial focus, seeking poems that reach beyond a narrowness of self to connect with something larger: “Juniper seeks poems that bring the reader back to themselves and leave
Poetry at Work A recent email from Brick Books announces another intriguing new application of poetry. It begins: “If you’re a poetry reader, you know that reading poetry can take you to a spacious internal place. To read a poem is to slow down to the level of breath, to pay close
NeuroArts As we move beyond the Industrial and Technological eras, it looks as though science is catching up with confirming the ancient powers of poetry. “Because the brain is agile, exposure to arts of all kinds fosters interconnectivity across a vast and complex network populated by hundreds of billions of neurons,
Seen or Silent (2) As our eyes silently read a poem on the page, at the same time inside our heads we may also hear our own voice. Whether this internal oral rendition is halting or flat, or conversely lovely and fluid depends on the complexity of image and thought, but even more on
2024 Welcome to a new year of Poetry Notes. As a happy way to begin, the emerging science of neuroarts offers hope for a path toward a better world, and within it, a greater appreciation for poetry in our lives: “The oldest archeological discoveries reveal the longstanding human pursuit of self-expression