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The Work of the Poet
From a fine remembrance of Derek Walcott by Bert Almon: He repeatedly said that forms actually free the imagination. He had advice for writers when metre falters: “If the metre peters out, stop. Solve the problem, it’s a gift of discovery. Start a new sentence.” As for rhyme, he stated that “every line of verse wants to rhyme. Every line expects to be coupled.” But he also said that “Rhyme is a precipice,” because you might not find the right rhyme.Read More
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Derek Walcott on the Poet’s Voice … and Much More
From a Bill Moyers interview with Derek Walcott: It takes you all your life to write the way you speak without faking it. I mean I think it’s very hard for a poet, very-very, very-very hard to get to hear his own voice without affectation. I mean I couldn’t read my poems with a British accent, or an American accent. You know, there’s an inner thing that makes me speak, I hope, the way I would write—tonally, not just in terms of vocabulary.Read More
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Oversight and Congratulations
Although James Stotts has been a follower of this blog for quite a while, I somehow missed the fact that he has a fine blog of his own, The Fugue Aesthetics of J. H. Stotts, which I’ve added to the Recommended Links list. I especially want to note his post today about the debut of “a new journal of poetry and prose” named Little Star.Read More
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Guilty
Ron Silliman tops his best in his latest blog post, in which he turns the smarmy politicking at Oxford into another intellectually dishonest brief against his fantasy nemesis, the School of Quietude. It’s fun, I admit, watching Captain Ron attempting to turn his horror over the political nature of the Padel-Walcott affair to his own poe(li)tical advantage. On the other hand, it’s sad to see him turning into PoBiz’s own Ann Coulter.Read More
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Reluctantly
I wasn’t planning to get into Derek Walcott’s Big Adventure with the gossip brigade, which was so loudly trumpeted in this country by Seth Abramson on his blog—see here and here. Seth got his panties so much in a wad over the fact that blog readers disagreed with his position that he finally disabled comments on the latter entry. But here I am, bringing it all up—reluctantly….Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
