"Fast and bulbous!"
"That's right, the Mascara Snake, fast and bulbous! Also, a tin teardrop."
waxahachie - grief poem for a particle accelerator
the drill (cementhookreplica) - poem about orthodontics
glass case - poem about how you hated it
betelgeuse - poem about the universe
beneath the desk - poem about drills
assorted poetry advice:
-read other people's poetry and steal from it liberally. it's only a crime if you don't do something new with it, filter it through your own unique poetic voice. i have been ripping off this frank stanford excerpt continuously ever since i read it, and nobody has ever noticed.
-music can be an excellent source of poetic inspiration. my first two poems here are based very directly on songs.
-poetry, especially free verse, lends itself well to the exceptionally personal. if you find yourself getting worked up writing it, you're probably onto some good material. all of these poems are personal to me in some way.
-don't feel like you have to restrict yourself to a specific poetic structure, especially if it's getting in the way of what you want to say. all of my poems are free verse, and better for it.
-no volume of advice can get you out of the essential work of sitting down and doing it until you're not shit anymore. i was bad at poetry for a long time, and i got better largely by writing more of it. don't stress out if your first attempts are stilted, highly derivative, or just kinda whatever. if you keep writing, you will gradually find your own poetic voice, and things will start to click.
