A. Anupama
Afloat together - I like accident in creative things. For example, this is one of the reasons I choose to know very little about jazz. Names of musicians, dates, recordings... blurrily. The music sneaks up on me. And I don’t consciously remember things when I’m creating. The sudden synchronicity of image, voice, a boat on…
Riverside high tide It’s a state of mind. Empty and ready to face the don’t-know-what’s-next feeling with patience. My students have written some amazing poems so far this year. Maybe it’s because feelings can’t be helped these days, and a creative opening can help.
Primrose path memory It’s like singing, except it’s painting or writing poems or sharing a recipe or planting a pot of flowers or anything else that awakens a full presence. For the past few months in my creative life, I have been writing little poetry, and I admit that I wondered why my voice was…
One of my students sent me some snow-day poems. And that has made all the difference. We work on some images, phrases. While storms rush through and it becomes increasingly painful to read the newspaper every day, one wonders how else to support the growth of love and hope in this world. And then through…
I call this walking off a cliff, knowing that a helicopter is right there to catch you. Knowing, but not seeing it in your conscious mind. Some of us write ourselves off the cliff and in that moment of falling, catch the void in a turn of phrase, in a poetic twist, or a sudden…
While walking around and talking with writers and poets for a few days, I could see the silky new dreams rolling out. This is just to say to you: keep watching, keep loving, keep singing your poems, friends. It will work. So grateful for everyone I met at AWP's annual conference in Washington, D.C. All of…
Try to get to the poem underneath a day, and the words just float on the surface sometimes. Then, it's better for me to revise and read and wonder. I'm thinking of my teen students who are sending their final submissions to Scholastic Art & Writing Awards today--our regional deadline. Those hours over the line breaks, word choices, image...…
We dismembered poetry and created some Franken-verse, as a little break today from revising work for the end of winter session at Writopia Lab. Reminding them (and myself) that cutting up the writing is still fun, startling, and rewarding.
It had not acquired one permanent wrinkle after all its ripples. ---Henry David Thoreau In poetry, circumambulating an object is the same as walking into the center of it. These two---poetry and walking near water---are my favorite ways into the deeps. And keeping a poetry notebook next to my busy life has become that necessary shortcut to serenity.
I hardly remember this---photo of a recent high school graduate and her younger sisters, visiting India in 1992. A past life, it seems. I've been reading high school seniors' writing portfolios as a volunteer juror in the Scholastic Art & Writing awards this week. I'm remembering, and happy to support those purer ideals growing into the future,…
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