Poetry Editor

Therapeutic poems

2026-03-22T03:57:28.759-04:00

Poetry groups on social media sites seem to be flooded with poems about unhealthy relationships, deep disappointments, chronic nightmares, angst, anger, hatred, or terror. These intense emotional outlets can bring relief and healing to the poets, especially under the auspices of a counselor or in conjunction with other types of therapies. From a reader’s point of view, however, the

A Poet Challenges AI to a Duel

2026-01-24T19:21:00.014-05:00

As a poet and writer for my entire adult life (and lately, a student of arti), I’ve viewed Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a threat to human creativity (dare I say, human existence.) Until today, I hadn’t sought help from artificial sources, but I was curious to see how AI would respond to one of my poems. So, for the test case, I picked an inspirational poem that’s received positive

Brief impressions of great poets

2026-01-07T16:01:00.002-05:00

For decades, I devoured poetry! Traditional poems, contemporary poems, free verse, haiku, or indiscernible forms didn’t matter. I was so hungry to write delectable poems, I gorged myself on those I admired.When my vision declined, however, I had to reduce my poetry diet to very large print books, so my formerly over-stacked shelves of poetry have now dwindled to three. Since I no

New Poem for Christmas

2025-12-22T15:43:00.001-05:00

Thirty-nine lines · Six stanzas (verses)· Six lines ending in six words

ABC Poem of Good News

2025-03-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I posted “God messaged me through music” on my blog, “In a Christian Poet-Writer’s Life.” That article mentioned hymns and song lyrics as my first introduction to poetry. By middle school, however, biblical psalms became an important and ongoing part of my poetic education. Poems in the books of prophecy also occur as discussed on “The Poetry of Biblical Prophets.” Those

How to Make a Good Poem Better

2025-01-29T15:55:00.000-05:00

The ease of publishing our own blogs, websites, and social media posts have encouraged many poets and writers to get their work out there for the general public and/or specialized groups to see. While this provides a welcomed outlet for self-expression, feedback from readers, promotion of a cause or mission, and the incentive to keep writing, it’s also resulted in unsubstantiated “facts,”

Highku: for lovers of God

2024-09-26T12:48:00.000-04:00

[Note: The following comes from the Introduction to the new book, Highku: for lovers of God.]Several years ago, poems began coming to me in the traditional 5/7/5 form of haiku or senryu, but they weren’t consistent with the traditional content of fleeting seasonal scenes or sudden insights. Instead, these three-line poems focused exclusively on God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – most often in

The ABC's of Poetry: A Dictionary for Children and for Fun

2024-03-23T15:34:00.000-04:00

[From the Introduction to The ABC’s of Poetry: A Dictionary for Children and for Fun] Poetry and young people make great friends! Even the youngest child responds to voice, tone, and musicality, delighting in the catchy sounds of rhyme, rhythm, and refrain. As language skills develop, most children also find it's fun to play with words, and poetry lets people of all ages do just that

Repeat after me: Repetition can be used effectively

2022-07-28T14:15:00.002-04:00

Many poets in our Christian Poets & Writers group on Facebook use repetition in their poems, which, when well-done, helps to create drama and memorable phrasing. Sometimes, though, repeating words or phrases make poems lose musicality and also the interest of readers who might want to say, "Stop! I heard you the first time."For those of you who like to use repetition, these previous posts on

7 Poems responding to 7 Poets

2022-05-04T13:40:00.000-04:00

The idea for this blog post came about because of the tremendous encouragement I received from posting a poem dedicated to Mary Oliver on a social media page honoring her. After reading the works of hundreds of poets, deciding my poems were totally out of sync, and giving up on the genre I’d loved since childhood, I ran across a little book by Mary Oliver with accessible poems I related to

Poets on poetry

2021-12-30T03:18:00.002-05:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of discussing poetry, faith, and his new chapbook with Matthew J. Andrews in an online interview for Agape Review. Not only is Matthew the Associate Poetry Editor of Solum Press, he has the unusual-for-a-poet job of Private Investigator.I hope you'll check out Matthew's and my discussion, and since family concerns have kept me from posting here lately, I

The Arts have much in common

2021-11-15T16:19:00.002-05:00

A composer composes a tune or score of music. An artist considers the composition of a sketch or painting. A writer writes in a composition notebook. A poet composes a poem. And, if we hope to be the best possible poet, writer, artist, or musician, we might need composure to compose ourselves!The Thesaurus inherent in Word software offers these synonyms for "compose":

How can a poem have texture?

2021-11-04T16:12:00.000-04:00

When I think of texture, I think of cable-knit wool sweaters, beach sand, seashells, pine needles, corduroy – all touchable and recognizable by our fingertips. Obviously, we can’t do that with poetry, so how can we give our poems texture? A definition might help. According to poets who know about such matters, texture can include figurative language (metaphor, simile, etc.) and rhyme or

How Haiku Helps

2021-10-02T13:15:00.001-04:00

Reading and writing haiku, senryu, and other mini-poems help us to see more detail and say more in fewer words. Why should this matter to poets and writers? Brevity Many of the poems posted on the Internet go on and on, like a first draft that was never read aloud, reconsidered, or revised. With just a little more wait-time allowed after writing and just a little more