In my thirties, as I was finally learning how to write poems, “The Drawing” was one of the few poems that I sent out for publication in a journal. It was accepted by Sulphur River Review, my favorite of the Texas based small press journals. At the time, this poem was published, Sulphur River was based in Commerce Texas; now it is published in Austin. James Michael Robbins is its brave and tireless editor and publisher. Support your local small press! [Sorry to say, now the journal has ceased publication.] Continue reading
Category Archives: ENGL 2307 Poetry
Show, Don’t Tell, Concerning “Cancer”
I offer this poem, “Cancer,” as a contrast to the poem from the first lecture, “I Have Dreamed a Hundred Whispers.” In my mid-thirties, I did what many people do. As I became a parent, I returned to the memories of my own parents to figure out who I was and what I had experienced. This poem is part of a series called “My Mother, My Father, My Wife, My Son.” To my mind, this poem is infinitely better than the poem from high school. Continue reading
Learning from the Masters, No Matter How Long It Takes, Concerning “The Dying Leaves”
“The Dying Leaves” is my first publication (other than my high school literary magazine). I wrote it while doing a summer graduate writing program at UT, which I attended while in graduate school at A&M. This style of poem was very much out of fashion in the seventies, but it is the kind I wrote in the mid to late seventies. Still the guest poet, a New York beat poet, who edited a journal of the program included this poem. I was flattered because I was not taking a poetry writing class, but a class in prose. Continue reading
Laying it out is straight simple lines, Concerning “Late Night”
“Late Night” is a poem written totally by ear. By that I mean that I did not try to duplicate a particular line meter, a particular number of accents or syllables per line. The way I indented it was something new for me. There is a kind of structure that says that the lines beginning on the left margin are the main ideas and the indented portions are subordinate ideas or subordinate pieces of the sentence. Continue reading
Lines and Stanzas, Concerning “Found Things”
“Found Things” is one of the last poems in Text and Commentary, and it is a poem where I was trying to find a new way to think and to live. I had been in a competitive situation at ACC and I had come out losing that competition, and had resigned an administrative post I had. I had been editing a quarterly magazine on the side, and the Bush I recession hit and all our advertising money disappeared. And I suspected that my marriage was ending. And I was nearing forty. So I was experiencing loss and trying to find a way through it. “Found Things” is my philosophical gambit to avoid depression and loss of self-esteem.