The following poems were published in Cloudbank and Sugar Mule, respectively. Both poems also appear in my new collection, Human Shade, which has just shipped author’s copies from the printer.

Thanks once again to Charles McDonald for filming.

I have also been remiss in my role as a “sideshow barker” for the excellent Big Tent Poetry project. So here is a contribution to that ongoing poetic circus–a list of sneaky ways to keep the plates of poetry spinning.

Get inspired. Prime the pump before writing by reading poems you love by poets you love. Transcribe them. Memorize them. Carry them inside you.

Trigger yourself. Smells, sights, sounds, textures. Let your eyes and your mind wander. Memories, fantasies, reflections. Start anywhere. Just go.

Keep going. Try pushing past where you think the ending occurs. Write a “Part II.”

Use constraints. Use word groups, poetic forms, made-up assignments from friends. Constraints spark creative freedom.

Read and listen. Read your own work aloud, get others to read it back to you. Listen to the music. Tune it up.

Focus on language and lines. Read the poem bottom-up, focus on each line. Does it stand alone on its merits?

Play. Cut poems up. Scribble and doodle. Swap lines around, swap stanzas around. Make up zany titles. Play!

Break the rules. Be prepared to break the rules to make the poem better. Constraints are there to get you free. It’s the freedom, and the poem, that counts.

Write bad. Try to write a “bad” poem. It gets you wild and free. Sometimes the harder you try to be bad, the better it gets.

Imitate. Write in the style of a favorite poet (or even one who simply provokes you.) You’ll be imitating your perceptions of them, which are original and entirely your own.

There’s more. Take the attitude that “There’s more where that came from.” If you do, you’ll be right.

Write briefly and often. Robert Hass said, “You can do your life’s work in forty minutes per day.” Write often enough to stay “in the game,” usually several times per week. Set a time limit. You can go over if needed.

Anywhere, anytime. Write when you don’t feel like it. Write when uninspired. Interesting language makes for better poetry than lofty, preconceived ideas. Trigger yourself, set a time limit, and just go. You’ll surprise yourself.

Keep a scroll. In addition to keeping going on a poem, try keeping one big document of poems and poem-snippets, so you’re never at the beginning, just in the flow. Pick up wherever you last left off, write in the date, and just go.

Swap assignments. Make up assignments (constraints) and swap them with friends. Do them all together in small groups, in person or over email. Do it regularly (e.g. once per month.) Then share the results. Learn from each other. Encourage each other. Keep each other free.

Flow. Marvin Bell said, “The good stuff and the bad stuff is all part of the stuff.” Keep flowing with it. Sometimes you’re just “clearing your throat.” Remember to let yourself “write bad,” and that the “bad” can sometimes transform into something great.

Stay in the game. Writing, reading, attending workshops, reading aloud in various venues (including among family and friends), reviewing books, swapping favorites on email–it all counts. But the best way to learn writing is by writing. Keep marking up the page. Keep clacking away at the keys. Every little bit counts, even if there seems to be no “result” that day. Stay nimble. Stay receptive. Stay in the game.

How else do you keep yourself motivated, creative, and free as a writer?

Here are the dates and descriptions for each workshop:

Tactics for Sneaky Poets
Saturday, January 8th, 10am-1pm

Learn new ways to spice up your relationship to poem writing in this fun, interactive course. This class will get you writing and revising in unconventional ways, to spark new creative ideas and energize your poems. Class size is limited to a maximum of five participants to give us an opportunity to shake things up. See poetry from a new angle and take away practical tips to overcome writers’ block and invigorate your revisions.

More Joy of Revision in Poetry
Saturday, January 29th, 10am-1pm

Bring a poem of your own to this interactive poetry workshop. Learn how to give and receive feedback in a supportive environment. Discover how to “calibrate” your perceptions and intentions as a writer through input from intelligent, engaged peers. Explore matters of form and narrative, meaning and mood in your own work along with a select group of fellow writers. Class size is limited to a maximum of five participants to give us an opportunity to dig deep, not only into the poems of the day, but the writing process in general. Come away not only with insights into your own poem, but into the greater conversation of poetry.

Exploring Form in Poetry
Saturday, February 19th, 10am-1pm

You don’t have to know your sestinas from your villanelles to learn how timeless poetic forms can make your poems sing. Class size is limited to a maximum of five participants to give us an opportunity to explore a range of forms through practical exercises and discussion.  Learn about forms by practicing several, and come away with a quiver full of new ideas, and a new appreciation for the centuries-old tradition of form in poetry.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Here’s to a season of warmth and poetry!

The following poem received an honorable mention in the 2008 Rattle Poetry Prize, and appeared in Rattle #30 in the winter of that year. While the text and an audio recording of me reading this poem are available on the Rattle website, this is the first time me reading this poem has appeared in a video. Special thanks to Charles McDonald for filming that night.

Safety glasses optional

I am looking forward to conducting a poetry workshop on Saturday, October 9th from 10am-12:30pm at Theater 150 in Ojai.

Bring a poem of your own to discover The Joy of Revision. Learn how to give and receive feedback in an interactive and supportive environment. Discover how to “calibrate” your perceptions and intentions as a writer through input from intelligent, engaged peers. Explore matters of form and narrative, meaning and mood in your own work along with a select group of fellow writers.

Class size is limited to a maximum of five or six participants to give us an opportunity to dig deep, not only into the poems of the day, but the writing process in general. Come away with insights into your own work, as well as into the greater conversation of poetry.

For more information and to reserve your space, please contact me directly. The workshop is reasonably priced, and all proceeds benefit Theater 150.

Theirs was not a traditional ceremony. Instead, having dedicated themselves to running Ojai’s local professional theater, Theater 150, they decided to write and stage a musical to both celebrate their commitment to one another, and raise funds to support the theater. The result was hilarious, profound, and disarming. Attended by hundreds at Ojai’s Libbey Bowl, the production involved inexpensive but clever props and costumes, a band and chorus, cheerleaders cueing Rocky-Horror-Picture-Show-style audience participation (ranging from throwing plastic bats to waving sprigs of kale), breakdancing Jello, the Greek god Hermes, and much more.

The result was a remarkable fusion of reality and theater, concluding a mix of heartfelt and zany theatrics tracing Deb and Chris’s journey through love and insecurity with an actual act of matrimony. And when they exchanged their vows and rings, and the real tears came, I felt stunned by the rightness–though it wouldn’t have been my own choice–of this particular, unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime experience of their union.

Thank you, Deb and Chris, for showing me, through giant dancing plants, plastic dolls on zip lines, and a horde of Mongol raiders composed of  pint-sized local volunteers, the dynamic I seek to cultivate in my own marriage–a relationship of rich, bold, and rewarding creative symbiosis. Indeed you have made a statement, both uniquely yours and universally applicable, of what it means to be two artists married to one another, and to your art. Heartfelt congratulations to you both.