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A Man with a Slant Rhyme: Contemplating Ted Kooser
Among my early memories are verses from Mother Goose. The perfect rhymes stick with me, sometimes within lines (“Hay-foot, straw-foot”) and sometimes nailed down at the ends of lines (“Hickory, dickory, dock, / The mouse ran up the clock”). Sometimes the rhymes did not quite align: “This little piggy went to market, / This little piggy stayed home, / This little piggy had roast beef, / This little piggy had none.” I was told that I said to my mother, “‘home” and ‘none’ don’t rhyme.” “But look,” she said. “‘This little piggy’ repeats.Read More
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The First Review of 2022
The first review (5 stars) of Under Sleep’s New Moon just appeared on Amazon. Especially heartening because it was posted by fellow poet and novelist* Dan Guenther. Good notice is all the sweeter when it comes from another ink-stained wretch! _________________ * I realize that this phrase seems to imply that I am a novelist.Read More
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From My New Book
My poem ” Black Willow” appears in the December 2020 issue of O:JA&L (Open: Journal of Arts & Letters). You can also find it in my new book, Under Sleep’s New Moon, forthcoming July 1 from NYQ Books. NYQ published The World As Is: New & Selected Poems in 2016. O:JA&L is one of those gorgeous journals that would be impossible to produce in print unless you were a billionaire.Read More
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The Worldwide Launch of The World As Is
Over to the right you’ll see a photo of my new, big fat collection of poems, The World As Is: New & Selected Poems, 1972-2015. My author’s copies arrived today from the publisher, NYQ Books, and oh my, NYQ did a beautiful job of production. Many thanks to Raymond Hammond, my editor at NYQ, a gentleman, fellow poet, critic, layout artist, and committed poetry lover who lavished a great deal of time on this project. His good taste and good sense have made the book better from punctuation to page and cover design.Read More
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Details about My New & Selected Poems (the AWP flyer)
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Rabbit Ears!
Just a quick note to say that NYQ Books has just released a tuned-in/turned-on anthology of poems about TV called Rabbit Ears. The sumptuous (130 poets, 348 pages) book, edited by poet Joel Allegretti, is, at this moment, the “#1 New Release” among poetry anthologies on Amazon, and a few days ago it earned a strong, positive review in The Boston Globe.Read More