Poet’s Notebook: Smohalla

Smohalla’s reverse Wisdom While  reading this summer I came upon this odd quotation from Smohalla, (1815-1895) a dreamer-prophet of the Wanapum tribe, a branch of the Nez Pierce people located in what is now the state of Washington. “My young men shall never...

A Poet’s Notebook: MEN

Last night I hosted nine men at my home.  This men’s group has been meeting monthly since 1986. Over those thirty two years one has moved away, four have died, and five have been welcomed in.  We do not talk  sports, cars, or work.  We generally steer clear of...

Poet’s Notebook: AWOL

Disaster! I lost my writing notebook, two hundred pages of jumbled jottings, ink splashed in jags across paper, an accumulation of sparsely parsed ideas, an entire battalion of notes gone AWOL, as good as losing six months of my...

Poet’s Notebook: Hole in the Ocean . . .

Writing poetry is digging a hole in the ocean, shovelful by shovelful, word by word. ____________________________________________________________ Digging a hole in the ocean with a shovel is impossible.  I know.  I tried it as a kid on the beach at Montauk Point, Long...

Poet’s Notebook: Euphonious

I received mild pushback on the word euphonious used in the tooth fairy poem posted yesterday. Euphonious is a word seldom used in ordinary speech. Never used might not overstate the case. The Greeks gave us this word for ‘good sound’ that actually sounds beautiful....