“a poet can avoid sentimentality by giving the reader credit for knowing how to respond to something without being led by the nose.”

...apophasis; though this sounds vaguely like an incurable heart condition, I assure you it is a terribly fun way of exploring what something is by explaining what it is not.

Of course I’ve taken liberties with your words. Dropped some. Added others. Nipped phrases, rerolled them as lines and frosted the whole tower with a title.

I realized that poetry is becoming, for me, a form of spiritual practice. Today it reminded me to notice the world, to "freshen the world" not just with my words but by listening to the words of...