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Breaking Glass: How To Overcome The Fear of Beginning
[Photo credits] The fresh page of a notebook, the blankness of the screen—both paralyze me like a stunned tabby cat many times in my life. I'd wrestle with the introduction or the first line of a poem until I'm able to flow steadily through the piece. Where it will take and leave me I'd have no clue. Some writers are the Hemingways who go by the saying "Write drunk, edit sober." In my case, I have the tendency to write and edit as I go, which I will admit oftentimes makes me much slower in progress and sick with symptoms of perfectionism. I've never actively tried to change this habit, and Continue Reading
Inked: Daily Passover, THE GAP, & 7 Poetry Collections for Every Reader
1. Poem: "Daily Passover" I wrote this poem as a response to Juan Felipe Herrera's Five Directions to My House. Daily Passover North of my desk: children tossing balls against thin walls, a chance to make them soar. West of my desk: final afternoon rays clothed for the eve of summer stars. South of my desk: mayas perched on burgundy roofs watching balls of light begin to burn rust. East of my desk: howling, like a song set on fire of a wilderness slipping from memory. Here, at my desk, I stare at the clock, How the arrows never stop. 2. Video: THE GAP by Ira Continue Reading
Daily Passover
It's National Poetry Month! For sure, poetry has given so much to our culture and society that everyone should get up and read their favorite ode or sonnet aloud. At the height of my discovery, I saw an announcement on Poets.org about an online celebration called Poets-to-Poets, in which young students from grades 3-12 can write and submit poems "in response to those shared by some of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors." These are: Poet Laureate of California Juan Felipe Herrera National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Edward Continue Reading
