The View from Canfield -Photo credit to Troxel

I want my virgin mouth back. And my virgin eyes and also, I should like to have again my virgin hands. Every Friday and/or Sunday I am crossing the Maple Street Bridge as the sun is rising over the Spokane River. Even bleary-eyed and uncaffeinated, I notice the level of the the water and its color. I’ve seen the shores choked by snow in the Winter, seen the explosive rush of the melted snow in the Spring and lately I’ve seen the river’s skinny body, the rocks that make its bed as we leave Summer. Every Friday and/or Sunday when I am heading to work, I write one line of poetry as I cross the bridge and I forget it before I’ve pulled into the parking garage. Read more »

For the most part, we’re supposed to write what we know, but does it matter how we know it? As a rule, I think most writers stick closer to experience and supplement it with research. I most often write from a memory or an interesting observation. Research less so, and I think I could use it more.

Poets seem to pull from their cannon more than prose writers. We write about Icarus and Lot’s wife and the like so much it feels like a rite of passage. Louise Glück’s Averno and James Wright’s “Saint Judas” come through this kind of research. That’s right kids, allusions fall into this category, too. But let’s not hate on Eliot again. Read more »