On Poetry
"A memorable poem is like hot gossip: it's fresh, perhaps startling; you want to pass it on to others. It has surprises, music to make your mind dance, and urges you to plunge into it again." This is what we editors at Whetstone Literary Magazine stated to Poets & Writers Magazine for a series "Editors on Poetry" and this is what continues to govern my own poetry.
When I have an experience that I want to share with others, whether truthful or with imaginative embellishment, I am talking to you, the unknown reader. Hopefully the poem is read aloud (even if just in the mind) to reveal its voice, to consider word choice and images, to hear rhythm or subtle rhyme, and at some point to return to the title that should resonate anew.
If you are unacquainted with poetry, I hope you will enter my poems and enjoy the experience. Images may communicate to your senses, emotions, and intellect. A poem may validate what you already know or give you a sense of discovery. Perhaps something will linger and, like a new friend just met, you will think about it again.
If you are a poetry lover, we share "this one long dialogue of heart:/words connected and rearranged//mine, yours, and all/the poets before us." (from "Holy Mackerel")