Archive | Creative

In the morning First light appears across the fields The first bird calls out, Heralding the arrival of a new day   A decade prior Looking out across the vast ocean above the breaking waves. Foam gathers into shapes and places People I knew, and buildings long gone Another wave breaks, breaking brick and mortar […]

Before taking this class, when I thought of contemporary American poetry, Sylvia Plath was one of, if not the first, poet to come to mind as embodying the genre. It has always saddened me that as celebrated as she is, she struggled so much in her life, and that comes through both in her poetry […]

*TW: suicide August 29th I turned Four today. Blew out the bright white light, again. This time it’s a celebration.   I tried my best to blow it out once Four years ago. But I couldn’t complete it.   I guess, I’m no good at it. Dad didn’t raise a quitter. But I never saw […]

    And the message also seems to be that this can be whatever it needs to be and maybe that is part conversation part explanation part extrapolation As long as the conversation keeps moving forward maybe only goes in the opposite direction once or twice if that’s really the direction it needs to go […]

I was quickly interested in Frank O’Hara’s structure of “A Step Away from Them” While I am not a poet, and do not actually read much poetry, this was fun to try to imitate and I enjoyed the experience.     A STEP AWAY FROM REAL It’s my one free hour, so I go for […]

I am so angry. Every time you come around,   destruction is in your wake. Words create life, yet you   just drain us away.   I am so angry. You just focus   on yourself, not caring,   Unfeeling, except for your words. Why do your words carry such weight, but we are   […]

Denise Levertov in “Some Notes on Organic Form” sets out to identify and define some of the key characteristics and/or processes of  “organic form poetry.”  She based her discussion upon Gerard Hanley Hopkins’ coining of the terms “inscape” and “instress” as referentials to sensory perception: to denote intrinsic form, the pattern of essential characteristics both […]

After reading the assigned selections from this week’s focus on Beat poetry, I decided to try my hand at producing a poem influenced by some of the aesthetics and conventions of the group. The poem “Holding Down the Fort” included above is the result of this experimentation. Before composing this poetic experiment, I considered how […]

The pressure of life weighs upon us, Presses upon us— There is no relief from the expectations, From the “opportunities,” From the responsibilities. Each day I see people being swept away, Away from peace and contentment, Swept toward frustrations, Toward commitment, Into expectations, Commitments, Obligations, Into more and more work. We are born into this. […]