In class, she said, “We writers are the raw nerve of the universe. Our job is to go out and feel things for people, then to come back and tell them how it feels to be alive. Because they are numb. Because we have forgotten.” In class, she said, “We have forgotten our rituals. Out […]
Category Archives: General
The Silences That Move Us To Speak – Ilya Kaminsky’s Poetry
July 28, 2018 – 6:18 pm
Search Patrols I cover the eyes of Gena, 7, and Anushka, 2, as their father drops his trousers to be searched, and his flesh shakes, and around him: silence’s gross belly flaps. The crowd watches. The children watch us watch: soldiers drag the naked man up the staircase. I teach his children’s hands to make […]
A Poem for Andy – Waiting for Surgery on July 12th, 2018
July 10, 2018 – 10:34 pm
Waiting A sound so loud: a dry leaf falling. The ground littered with yellow silences. I walked here with you once, the Arbutus grove, their leaves dropping and their copper peeling, the new-skin green underneath. New skin. How many times dear Lord our new skin? Each green silence? Richard Osler, unpublished 2018 It is not […]
See You in Italy in October?
June 30, 2018 – 8:45 pm
I am pleased to announce that my October poetry retreat En Plein Air, in Umbria, Italy is a go! For details see above in Upcoming Events! I am also very happy to say we have a few spots left. If you have any interest please let me know asap!
Poems for the Summer Solstice – # 2 in a Series – W.S. Merwin
June 17, 2018 – 3:12 pm
Summer Be of this brightness dyed Whose unrecking fever Flings gold before it goes Into voids finally That have no measure. Bird-sleep, moonset, Island after island, Be of their hush On this tide that balance A time, for a time. Islands are not forever, Nor this light again, Tide-set, brief summer, Be of their secret […]
A New Book by Randy Lundy and a Reminder of my Italian Poetry Retreat This October
June 4, 2018 – 5:36 pm
ANOTHER SEASON Buds on the mountain ash this spring a green paler than you have ever seen. Sunlight, blackbird singing. What more could you ask friend? Pilgrim, what more? Randy Lundy from Blackbird Song, University of Regina Press, 2018 Found this big little poem in a new collection (his third) by Canadian poet Randy Lundy. […]
Catching Fire -Writing En Plain Air – An Invite to Richard’s October Retreat in Italy 2018
April 9, 2018 – 5:09 pm
RECOVERING WORDS IN ITALY A Generative Poetry Writing Retreat with Richard Osler – experienced poetry facilitator and author of Hyaena Season “Catching Fire – Writing En Plein Air” I write from habit, not because I am on fire. — Vittoria Colonna (1492 – 1547) La Romita School of Art Terni, Umbria, Italy 10 Days Oct. […]
And Still He Sings – A Celebration of Patrick Lane and his New Novel, Deep River Night, Released Today
February 13, 2018 – 10:04 pm
The Beauty This too, the beauty of the antelope in snow. Is it enough to say we will imagine this and nothing more? Who understands that, failing, falters at the song. But still we sing. That is beauty. But it is not an answer any more than the antelope most slender of beasts most beautiful […]
The Bigness of Small Poems # 34 in a Series – Winter Solstice – Winter Poems by Sarah, MacLeod, Lane, Crozier
December 21, 2017 – 11:24 pm
Solstice A sly gift it is, that on the year’s shortest day, the sun stays longest in this house – extends the wand of its slow slant and distant squint farthest into the long depths of our wintry rooms – to touch with tremulous light, interior places it has not lit before. Robyn Sarah […]
The Bigness of Small Poems – #33 in a Series – The Ah! Ha! Genius of Jack Gilbert
September 2, 2017 – 10:49 pm
The Cucumbers of Praxilla of Sicyon What is the best we leave behind? Certainly love and form and ourselves. Surely those. But it is the mornings that are hard to relinquish, and music and cucumbers. Rain on trees, empty piazzas in small towns flooded with sun. What we are busy with doesn’t make us groan […]