by gsfrnkln | Oct 13, 2025 | Uncategorized
A random thought just passed by and smacked me: when I read a poem, a picture starts to form in my mind of the poet. I don’t mean a picture of the poet’s physical appearance, although that may happen eventually. I mean an impression of a person, an individual,...
by gsfrnkln | Sep 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
There is a story about a friendly debate between Kenneth Burke and Harold Bloom where Burke explained that the question he always asked about any literary work was “What was the writer trying to do for himself or herself as a person?” Bloom replied that the question...
by gsfrnkln | Aug 28, 2025 | Uncategorized
These are not easy days for anybody, but if you’re a poet, fiction writer, or essayist and you have the resources and leisure to write, you’re not doing too badly. Compared, that is, to the people who don’t have a place to live, don’t have enough to eat, or who are...
by gsfrnkln | May 31, 2025 | Uncategorized
Joseph Brodsky declared to his students that there are “two areas to which democracy does not apply: one, the sciences because that would equate knowledge with ignorance, and two, the arts, because that would equate masterpieces with garbage.” As I recall, Brodsky...
by gsfrnkln | May 21, 2025 | Uncategorized
It’s not easy to publish poetry of any kind, and there is little agreement between editors (and readers) about what constitutes “good” poetry. With that in mind, congratulations to anyone whose poem is chosen for publication by a magazine or anthology. If your...
by gsfrnkln | Jan 28, 2025 | Uncategorized
The difficulty of thinking about poetry as a kind of writing is the temptation to define it as words put into meter or some other structure. This tells us very little and is immediately contradicted by forms like prose poems. We already understand that poetry is...
by gsfrnkln | Nov 26, 2024 | Uncategorized
I’ll begin with an admission: I’ve written a lot of what could be called “travel poems.” I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it does introduce questions. Henri Cartier-Bresson said that while great photographs could be taken anywhere, “the heart beats faster in...
by gsfrnkln | Nov 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
As I write this, two days have passed since Donald Trump was elected to a second term as President of the United States. This was shocking for many of us, including me. I could not understand how citizens of a democracy that–whatever its flaws–had...
by gsfrnkln | Jul 2, 2021 | Uncategorized
5 Myths about Big Writing Contests It really bothers me when I hear about excellent poets who have written amazing poems, poems anyone in their right mind would envy, getting rejection emails from fancy poetry contests. I can’t help but feel that many—though not...
by gsfrnkln | May 31, 2021 | Uncategorized
This is a post for my friends who write and submit their work to literary journals. It is probably superfluous, as you’ve likely had the same experiences that I’ve had, but maybe putting it into words may be useful to someone. You’ve probably also...
