Poetry
Cold, hard truth from a middle school boy that explains why many people want to succeed but few do.
A middle school student reading a poem onstage at a TEDx Talk said this: “You are who you want to be.” This is some cold, hard truth.That is a truth that many people don’t understand.That is the truth that holds many, many people back from achieving their goals. What does it mean? I am often…
Read MoreA famous writer and I agree on the worst part of sleep
Someone on Twitter sent me this poem: “Sleep.Those little slices of Death. How I loathe them.” I read these three lines and thought, “Yes! I’m not alone! See? Someone else hates sleep, too! Someone else thinks that sleep is way too close to death! See? I’m not crazy!” Then I saw the poet: Edgar Allen Poe “Damn,” I…
Read MoreHaiku
Little girl chased by bearBlood and gore amid the sycamoresTasty bear sandwiches
Read MorePoetry memorization need not be boring or a waste of time. I have used it to make a woman swoon (possibly) and enact one of my greatest pranks of all time against a fellow teacher.
Mike Chasar of Poetry Magazine writes about the lost art of poetry memorization. While it’s true that the academic demand to memorize poetry has all but disappeared from the American school system, I’m happy to report that this dying art remains alive and well in tiny corners of the world, including several of my own.…
Read MoreLittle boy in a box
Years ago, I wrote a poem about the value of a cardboard box. It was based upon an afternoon that I spent with my childhood friend, David. The poem won a writing contest, was published in a now-defunct literary journal, and earned me a little cash. My first legitimate payday as an writer (I…
Read MorePoetry is not for the faint of heart. At least mine apparently isn’t.
I recently completed a book of poetry and asked some of my faithful first readers to consider offering me their feedback before I pass it onto my agent. One of my first first readers and one of the earliest supporters of my writing career replied thusly: I once enjoyed, and even wrote, poetry, but since…
Read MoreThe New York Times gets haiku all wrong, and I’m infuriated. Probably more than I should be.
The New York Times has been publishing “serendipitous haikus” for the last couple years on a Tumblr called Times Haiku. An algorithm designed to detect potential haikus in text periodically scans the New York Times home page for newly published articles. Then it scans each sentence looking for potential haikus by using an electronic dictionary…
Read MoreWhy I use “Warmly”
My friend, Tony, was included in a recent email that I signed with the valediction: Warmly, Matt Tony’s response: I must say the “Warmly, Matt” doesn’t seem like you. He’s right. Joan Acocella of The New Yorker recently wrote a piece on the various valedictions and said she never uses “Warmly” because it sounds too…
Read MoreCardboard boxes rule
The cardboard box was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2005. The idea of a Toy Hall of Fame is fairly stupid, but if there has to be one, the cardboard box most certainly belongs there. I wrote a poem in honor of the cardboard box a few years ago, based upon a…
Read MoreThat man from Nantucket is seriously profane.
For twenty years or more, I have listened to people in movies and on television begin reciting the limerick “There Once Was a Man from Nantucket” and then stop after the first line and laugh, acknowledging that the next lines contained profanity of some kind. Oddly enough, I had never bothered to look for the…
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