To this day, I think about those children very, very often. The memory of them has kept me time and again from making an enemy of The Other. The memory of them smacks me into the reality that there is no other. There is only us: each one vulnerable, quick to freeze all the way to death if not looked after, and very small.
So, you’ve just written a poem. You’ve crammed it with emotion, love, and artistry. You really believe in it. But if you’re being honest, you know it needs some work—maybe even (ouchy-ouch) a LOT of work. And yet you really have no idea where to begin with that dreaded process: revision. Here's a checklist to help!
Inspiration and Time To Write don't always get off at the same station. Do you frequently find yourself all out of ideas the minute you settle down to write—even though you had been looking forward to it all day? For times like that, poetry prompts can be an invaluable addition to a writer's toolkit, and I'd like to share a few of my personal favorites with you.
I certainly wanted the poem to reflect the strong personal attachment I felt to this pair of birds whose ardent connection to one another aroused all my sympathies at a time when global events made connections between living things seem especially frail.
I’ve watched fear bloom in my heart like a Venus flytrap, snapping at any beautiful thing that dares to flutter too close. And I’ve decided: this joy thing is not child’s play. Joy too can be an act of resistance, as many people before me have observed.
