Bryan Schutmaat © Abandoned Homestead, Red Mountain Mining District, Colorado, 2011 By happy coincidence I discovered the work of Bryan Schutmaat, and his poetic series: “Grays the Mountain Sends”. In “Grays the Mountain Sends”, Schutmaat skillfully documents the rugged landscapes and people of the great American West. The images describe a series of mining sites and small, hardscrabble mountain…
Tag: RICHARD HUGO
the Pleasures of Writing Poetry
Today I’m reading The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux. I like it a lot. I really haven’t read many books on writing, but (contrary to a lot of readers & writers) I enjoy much of what I read in this genre. “Every good poem…
Nuts and Bolts
Lectures on poetry & writing by Richard Hugo (cont.) Don’t write with a pen. Ink tends to give the impression the words shouldn’t be changed. Write with what gives you the most sensual satisfaction. Write in a hard-covered notebook with green lined pages. Green is easy on the eyes. Blank white pages seems to challenge you…
The best poetry-writing teacher
Lectures on poetry & writing by Richard Hugo (cont.) When Roethke read his favorites aloud (Yeats, Hopkins, Auden, …) the students could feel themselves falling in love with the sounds of the words. He gave students a love of the sound of language. His classes were clinics. He performed therapy on the ear. Self-Portrait With…
Finish the poem first, then worry, if you have to, about being right or sane
Lectures on poetry & writing by Richard Hugo (cont.) Assumptions lie behind the work of all writers. Words love the ridicules areas of our minds. It is important that a poet not question her assumptions, at least not in the middle of composition. Finish the poem first, then worry, if you have to, about being right…
Chasing a way to write
Lectures on poetry & writing by Richard Hugo (cont.) If you are a private poet, then your vocabulary is limited by your obsessions. You are after those words you can own and ways of putting in phrases and lines that are yours by right of obsessive musical deed. Your triggering subjects are those that ignite…
The Triggering Town
Lectures on poetry & writing by Richard Hugo (cont.) I caution against communication because once language exist only to convey information, it is dying. In news articles the relation of the words to the subject is a strong one. The relation of the words to the writer is weak. (Since the majority of your reading…
What I learned in school today?
Today I have taken my poetic writings to a prose class, just to hear that: my language is original my images are beautiful my text has a strong & personal voice my story is totally incomprehensible Oh – I’ll better search for comfort elsewhere: Never worry about the reader, what the reader can understand. When…
sub rosa 