Circumstantial Dragonfly
She wants to quell vertigo as certainly as a guillotine slicing the perpendicular “Circumstance”
Aide Memoire
A poem from my latest collection Mouthbrooders, published by Homebound Publications. Visit the store to order and support National Poetry Month, Independent Publishers, and writers who want to share their words.
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Check out Brainwaves Video Anthology on You Tube. Take advantage of the filmmaker Bob Greenberg’s hard work, and browse a diverse anthology of videos featuring writers and thinkers from across the spectrum of literature and culture.
Mouthbrooders
During six months of vocal cord paralysis, author and professor Amy Nawrocki turned to the written word and fell in love with language again. The result of this exploration is her stunning collection Mouthbrooders, full of sounds and their echoes—ravens screeching, eggs cracking, and acorns falling. As Nawrocki struggles to find her own voice again, she […]
Mouthbrooders: Official Release
Order your copy today from Homebound Publications for a 20% discount!
Of Kites and Cohen
I recently led a discussion about the poetry and lyrics of Leonard Cohen at the Bethel, CT, Public Library. The program was sponsored by Bethel Poet Laureate Cortney Davis. In the talk, I centered on intimacy and audience in Cohen’s work, how in poetry and song he can draw his readers (and listeners) in through […]
Words, words, words
The poem began as a class exercise. My students were experimenting with fixed and traditional form poems. I gave them the option of trying a villanelle or a sestina. Some had trouble getting started, so I offered a few images that they could pool from. We had discussed the form and how repetition functions differently […]
Explicating the Poetic Process
“My writing process saves a fair percentage of timefor self-doubt and lack of artistic confidence.” It starts with an encounter. There is a notarized mammal, a dead serpent, and a preserved misspelling. Then a mythical flash of inspiration, the grabbing for tool and template, and the clumsy yet magical act of documentation. Just like the […]
“In the folds of envelopes”
Letter from Long Island Trestles of lines accost her— curls and clean edges, dots and crosses hollow shapes and and empty spaces. Words are lonely secretaries. After smudging the blue ink, she retraces folds and creases, returns the specimen to origami. Pushing the shell of thin glasses to the high bridge of her nose, […]
