Sugar Maple, October 2020 I come outside to berate the men, pulled up on my sidewalk in their truck, not realizing it's really a hearse, these the pall bearers They mean no harm; they have a job to do and they apologize, but then the lift and chipper arrive, and I know what death lies …
I recently came across an online interview with the poet Ted Kooser from World Literature Today that shared his thoughts on the power of metaphor. In the past few months, I’ve been rereading one of his books, Splitting an Order, and sometimes I’ll select one of his poems to imitate in my own writing. So …
It’s about this time that I’m usually wrapping up my teaching of American Romanticism. We’ve made it through Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and we’re just about done with my favorite, Henry David Thoreau. Over the years, I’ve made deletions and additions to the scope and sequence, hoping …
Back at the end of October, my friend, Edward Luecke, began putting together a video to promote my collection of poetry about Montrose, Pennsylvania, called Public Avenue. On a Wednesday night at The Susquehanna County Historical Society, we shot about an hour of video with a series of questions that explained the project and my …
Continue reading "Poetry About Small Town Life in Pennsylvania"
The Turkey Once upon an empty plate, while I pondered, long and lateOver many a quaint and curious cookbook of delicious delight,While I simmered the onions and butter, suddenly there came a flutterAs of a gobble gobble at my door, a quiet gobbling at my door,‘Tis my imagination, thought I, playing tricks at this dark …
The White Whale 