How can haiku be like riding on trapezoidal tires?
That is the question I ask in this month’s .Haiku column.
Actually, it’s about my experience judging a contest for the North Carolina Poetry Society.
It has been a fun process. In the column, thoughts of editors filled my mind, especially the ones who have given me a hard time. And how right they can be! As I went through the submissions, it seemed to me that one of the most important attributes a poem could have is a link to the past. It is this link that lets me know which poets yearn to be part of the dialogue, which ones might stand on the shoulders of giants…
Ever see someone writing a poem who says, “Oh, I don’t really read poetry.”?
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Thank you, Ellen!
Thanks for another good question, Gene. I agree that reading is an important part of writing–whether 5 minutes a day or a few hours a day. I find that every week includes rereading familiar poets as well as stretching to understand new writers. Sometimes the work of a poet is both. Just now, I was rereading Luci Shaw and there is new understanding as I reach the age she was when she wrote some poems I read a few decades ago. She has a website. Ellen