If you are aware that you need to be brave, you are probably on the threshold of writing something that matters.
Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others (2003, pg. 172)
During the last week in April I attended an AWA writing-group leadership training with poet Patricia Lee Lewis at The Crossings in Austin, Texas. Patricia, along [...]

Gulls like white handkerchiefs. How I wish I’d written that line. It is a gorgeous simile. Alas. It is not mine. It is a line from Isabel Allende’s new memoir, The Sum of Our Days.
This week, your prompt is fairly simple. Make comparisons. Notice the world around you. [...]

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution, about mothers or any other topic that inspired you this week. We’re not picky, we’re just happy you came by. Probably just like a mom would [...]

In true Poetry Slam style, the Spoken Word Revolution Redux CD and book set starts out by putting a Poet Laureate head to head with a Slam Champion. Ted Kooser (former USA Poet Laureate) vs Anis Mojgani (twice National Poetry Slam Individual Champion); Andrew Motion (current UK Poet Laureate) vs Sonya Renee (former National Poetry [...]

It’s the time of year when the earth blooms with warmth and color, baby robins crack through eggshells to naively take on the world, and Hollywood moms proudly strut about to reveal their winter-night-born love-bumps. And the American greeting card industry is counting on us all to send our mothers a card.
I resisted making [...]

The current poll is difficult to answer honestly. It forces us to balance our feelings about ourselves with the expectations that we will be gracious, humble and, far worse, politically correct. It requires us not only to be aware of our talent and work ethic but also to be comfortable sharing that assessment (even [...]

From now until midnight one week from today, comments on this post will be open, so you can leave a permalink to your blog post for this week’s contribution.
Be sure to check back through the week and see what others have written in response to science fiction poetry, or any other idea: Read Write Poem!
* [...]

Rae Armantrout starts out Next Life with a “Tease,” which hints at structure, idea and form, but barely fleshes it out.
The poem juxtaposes images of a cop imagining a serial killer, a tree that is also a skeleton, a black sedan and a knit red cap, asking readers to draw the parallels between these [...]