Cathy Cook
Since February is Black History Month, now seems like a great time to think about the work of Black poets. Danez Smith's collection Don't Call Us Dead is hands down the most moving poetry collection I have ever read. Go buy it. Right now. Get on Amazon, click buy, or hop in your car, drive … Continue reading Poem of the Week
When you have enough resources you’re less likely to squabble. Edgar and Poe sometimes get mad at each other. They make a low purring sound and their normally relaxed fluff ball bodies become long and sleek as they stalk each other around the food dish. This erupts in a chase from one end of the … Continue reading Things My Guinea Pigs Taught Me: Resources
I started 2018 knowing that I wanted change. I did the new year’s thing and set goals and plans to make those goals happen. Something predictable happened: I did not meet many of those goals. But as the year progressed a funny thing happened.
My word of the year seems to be overwhelming. Everything is too big, too loud, too much. Life right now is full of disruptions--some I chose, others I was handed. Personal disruptions in the middle of a news cycle that just can't quit. Overwhelming. Poetry and the community surrounding it has been a place to … Continue reading Post IWPS Thoughts
Livin' on a prayer! Now that song will be stuck in your head. You're welcome. November, national novel writing month, is a month in which many aspiring novelists (myself included) take on the possibly foolhardy challenge of attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month. Nanowrimo.org offers oodles of writing prompts, local … Continue reading Nanowrimo: Halfway There
Donald Trump’s twitter account makes me deeply unhappy. But this week I decided to dig through the last week of tweets for the sake of art, and the subject of this post, found poetry. Found poetry is a form in which writers create poems out of existing text. Anything from speeches to Shakespeare, to graffiti … Continue reading The Poetry of Donald Trump’s Twitter
When’s the last time you spent your weekend obsessively counting syllables on your fingers? Or trying to find a word that rhymes with fish that is both esoteric and concrete? I know, that sounds like the best weekend ever! You too can panic as you try to figure out whether enmity has two syllables or … Continue reading How Do I Love Thee Sonnet
Not really. But this is an introduction to a poetry form that will force you (just like the pantoum) to embrace repetition. Story time. When I was in eighth grade, I had a MySpace page. I’m not even sure if MySpace exists anymore, my page certainly doesn’t. I wasn’t a very good MySpace user. I … Continue reading How to be a Rap God
The cilantro and parsley succumbed first. Their thin stems and curled leaves couldn’t muster the strength to keep standing and fainting and standing and fainting in the heat. When temperatures rose or the soil grew bone dry they collapsed, stems hanging limply over the side of their metal pots. Sometimes the limp plants became entangled, … Continue reading The Death of an Herb Garden
I'm planning to move soon, so I made a photo essay about my neighborhood. I live on a street filled with print shops, punk shows, stray cats, laundromats, and old friends.
