The corniness and implausibility of melodrama stems from a form of narcissism—a fictional world that conforms too completely to the character's emotional state, indicating a micromanaging author...

Remember that what matters is that you be fearless and write fearless poems. The world needs you to say the things it cannot say for itself...

While the acclaim and name-recognition of winning a well-known prize is nice, it's not the only way. More than ever, this is the Golden Age of Indie Publishing. Independent poetry presses are publishing the most daring, mind-blowing work...

I am not ashamed to tell you that my debut book of poetry, Beast, was rejected 70+ times over an approximately five year period before it was finally accepted and turned into an object in the world this past January...

As Paul was readying the kids for a little hike, one of the boys started to panic; a first-grader, he was worried he'd get attacked by a bear. Paul told the kid: "The good news is we're all gonna die one day, so really you have nothing to worry about..."

As others have asked before, "Where is the poetry of the first Gulf War?", I ask, "Where is the great twenty-first century American bicycle poem?" And I am only half kidding...

There are many different types of writing: but I've found it's just plain easier to write when I have a clear, manageable objective, no matter what stage of the writing process I'm at. So I thought I'd share some exercises I've collected over the years…

"For all men live by truth," writes Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1844 essay The Poet, "and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, the…

Merwin unable to make it to reading with Dean Young. #Staycalm everyone: I brought some poems to read...

The exchange was just another reminder that the capitalist society I live in is obsessed with material wealth and measures human value by net worth and not, say, capacity for feeling...