Monthly Archives for January 2018



What Is Poetry? Ani Knows The Answer…

    Here be the first stanza of Ani D’Franco’s “32 Flavors.” Squint your eyes and look closer I’m not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am thirty-two flavors and then some And I’m beyond your peripheral vision So you might want to turn your head ‘Cause […]


DUH! What is poetry? This…

I’m going to call this the first stanza of Jackson Browne’s poem, “Your Bright Baby Blues.” I love the commentary. In five lines he nails our primary struggle–a struggle to feel relevant; the never-ending struggle of the ego to feel fulfilled. It’s so much better to hear Jackson say it. For the complete lyrics… I’m […]


“I have not seen anything funny in a long time.”

My friends and I had fun analyzing some of the Frog and Toad stories. Then we wrote our own back-of-the-book blurbs about them. Here is my blurb for the story “A Swim.” If you would like to listen to the story read aloud by Alan Philip Ormond, click here. “I have not seen anything funny in […]




I Found The Answer To The Question…

Although poetry is my favorite subject to study with the young folk, I’ve often found myself being prosaic in discussing, “What makes a poem a poem,” or, “What is poetry,” or “Why does this poem work or not work?” The real answer to the question, “What is poetry” is definitely not an answer. I finally […]