The neo-slave narrative, as defined by literary critic Ashraf Rushdy, is a genre of work that grew out of the awareness and turmoil of the 1960s Black Power movement. As a genre, the neo-slave narrative “assumed the form…and the first-person voice of antebellum slave narratives,” while attempting to position itself in the burgeoning debate between mainstream and minority opinion on history and cultural critique of the era.  While the 60s saw an explosion in critique based around deconstruction of dominant genres, like the novel or the tragedy 1, the neo-slave …

original via www.donewaiting.com
While my time in California over the past two years was captured in Idyllwild Dreaming, I am now in a new city–Columbus, Ohio–with a new set of dreams. This new collection, Measures of Silence picks up where Idyllwild Dreaming left off this February with four untitled poems, “I have a wall to break”, “in your goodnight I hear him”, “drops of water” and “his favorite phrases spewl”. While my editor Matt Kessen was engaged in moving to the east coast and establishing himself there, I would like to …

Idyllwild Dreaming is a series of poems on dreaming and the imagination. Featured this month: “Lanval,” “May Queen,” “Guinevere,” and “Avalon,” inspired by Marie de France’s Lanval. Thanks to my editor, Matt Kessen, for his help on the series. I’ve enjoyed writing poems again, and my thanks to all who have read them over the past few months. While this may be the last planned entry of Idyllwild Dreaming on Playtime, I doubt that I can stay away from poetry for very long.
A word on Marie de France’s Lanval is …

Original image from the Carbon Canyon Chronicle blog.
“Idyllwild Dreaming” is a series of poems on dreaming and the imagination. Featured this month: “after the Sylmar Fire,” “city bells,” “Poem for Dan” and “7:30 am,” inspired by Michael Ryan and Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Michael Ryan’s simple language creating a moment of transitional space sets the scene for “after the Sylmar fire,” written in the wake of the November fire that devastated Carbon Canyon before it was stopped at the 57 freeway. The second poem, “city bells” is directly inspired …

I say without reservation: it is a fantastic time to be a writer. From the rise of small-print publishing online and off, to the celebration of writers in some of the most influential television programs (Oprah and The Daily Show come to mind), the paths to becoming a published author have never been as varied as they are today. Whether you NaNo1 or AWP; whether you sit down with a strong cuppa in front of a keyboard on weeknights and weekends; or whether you cram pages of prose in at …

“Idyllwild Dreaming” is a series of poems on dreaming and the imagination. New poems from this series will be published every month as a on-going Playtime feature. Featured this month: “Rush Hour at Marylebone,” “views of the city,” “views of the country,” and “the redwood.” The form of “views of the city” and “views of the country” are inspired by Wallace Steven’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”–-a poem that, I’ll admit, have a difficult time finding overarching meaning. “The redwood” is written as an homage to Louise Glück’s …

“Idyllwild Dreaming” is a series of poems on dreaming and the imagination. Three new poems from this series will be published every month as a on-going Playtime feature. Featured this month: “What the Word ‘God’ Means,” “The cracks of my mind,” and “Ode to Dark Places.” The first two poems are inspired by and/or quote directly from Wallace Steven’s superlative “Sunday Morning“–one of the most haunting and lovely poems of the 20th century. The last, “Ode to Dark Places” is written in the style of Pablo Neruda (specifically referencing “Ode …