Category Archives: Poetry
Rhyming, Rilke, and Doggerel
Does rhyme move a poem along on its own accord? Is there a power that rhyme has that unrhymed poetry does not possess? It seems rhymed poetry can deliver a message in a way that communicates, if not in the … Continue reading
Posted in art, editing writing, Poetry, Uncategorized
Tagged book of hours, doggerel, motive force, Poetry, power of rhyme, rhyme, Rilke, structure in poetry, ts eliot, unrhymed
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Lost and Found in T.S. Eliot
My book is about rockhounding and prospecting in the Southwestern United States. At its heart is exploring. In peppering my book with quotations, I’ll have some thoughts from people who have wandered the world. But all that exploring may come … Continue reading
Just Because I Like Bob Dylan
Good writing is captivating and compelling. It rolls off the tongue and imagination as easily as a marble rolling off a glass tabletop. Lewis Carroll had the gift. Dylan, too, in a different way. May all your writing roll. Tombstone … Continue reading
Posted in art, music, Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged beat poetry, Dylan, Highway 61, Highway 61 Revisited, lyrics, Poetry, Tombstone Blues
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A. E. Housman’s Minimalist Poetry
A.E. Housman was a minimalist poet, whose spartan lines are matched by only the best Haiku writers. He bitterly and wryly welcomed death, romanticizing its inevitability. He was extremely popular during the First World War and his poems reflected the … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged A.E. Housman, Housman, Poetry, World War I
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Eliot Never Too Common to Quote
Now that I live in the desert, The Hollow Men resonates with me more and more. Eliot was of course writing about a dryness of spirit. Still, connections hold. This vital poem by Thomas Stearns Eliot is widely quoted and analyzed. … Continue reading
Posted in art, Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged Conrad, dryness, Heart of Darkness, Poetry, T.S. Eliot, the desert, The Hollow Men
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Oh! I Have Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth
This film and poem was often used by television stations in the 1960s before signing off for the evening. It was written in 1941 by 19-year-old Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr, three months before he was killed in World … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged High flight, John Gillespie Magee, Jr, television sign offs
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And No Birds Sing
Does some writing remind you of others? To me, these three seem linked. La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad by John Keats O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And … Continue reading
