Category Archives: Writing

“Consider This” – review

Chuck Palahnuik is the author of “Fight Club,” a book I have not read. After reading and re-reading “Consider This,” I may. This book is a collection of essays on writing. The points come with examples and a story or … Continue reading

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Ambiguous is not the same as Unclear

Ambiguous comes from the Latin ambi (both ways) and agere (to drive). A lot of my poetry is ambiguous in the sense that words and phrases have two different interpretations, both of which are intended. In a writer’s group, someone … Continue reading

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Letters at 3AM

COCKROACHES SCURRY. A tiger lies still in tall grass for hours awaiting prey. I write. The cockroach, the tiger, and me – we do how we are made. Michael Ventura Michael Ventura wrote the “Letters at 3AM” column from 1993 … Continue reading

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Reading Outside of Your Lane

Reading Outside of Your Lane is a blog post on how to approach reading a novel about a person or people outside of your usual fare. The author writes transgender historical fiction. This is needed advice as literature opens up … Continue reading

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Prescient

Rest, but pay attention. Refuse to cooperate with anyone who is stealing your freedom, you personal and civil liberties, and then smirking about it. I’m not going to name names. Anne Lamott – “Plan B” Writers sometimes appear prescient (seeing … Continue reading

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Joyce Harjo on the Gifts of the Pandemic

A theme that runs through this interview with Joyce Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate, is home. We moved to Austin, TX because my wife wanted to go home. California was losing its appeal (cost of living, forest fires, and our direction … Continue reading

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Why Poetry

My poem, “Why Poetry,” is the first of the Ars Poetica series on Texas Poetry Assignment. Several poems on the Website have audio of the author reading it. This is the first with audio and video.

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Ars Poetica

Sunday, a week ago, I’d never heard of Ars Poetica. On Monday I wrote a poem arguing against Dunya Mikhail’s statement, “poetry is not medicine—it’s an X-ray.” It explained why I wrote and read poetry, sometimes as medicine, sometimes as … Continue reading

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Jazz Writing

The Art of Jazz: Learning to Co-Write with a Partner arrived in my e-mail box just after someone else’s draft in a writing group we share struck me as having a lot of potential to go in several ways. Rather … Continue reading

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What Takes To Do a TEDx Talk

The editors of Loud Coffee Press entered the competition to do a Western New England University TEDx Talk. In a recent post they shared the process of moving from idea to “show time”. It is a process the TEDx Talk … Continue reading

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