Weaving a Basket of Words

How to Write a Poem to Carry Water

photo by author

Dear Readers,

I am elated to announce that I finally found the manuscript of Weaving a Basket of Words: How to Write a Poem to Carry Water, in the bowels of my computers. I have been searching for over a year!

From now on, this book will be sent to all paid subscribers as a PDF download. If you are already a paid subscriber, or if you are reading this and choose to upgrade via this email, you will be able to access the PDF on the other side of the paywall.

I originally offered this as an online course nine years ago. It was quite fun, and I think the participants also enjoyed it, but the pace, 30 poems in 30 days, was intense. I turned the course into a book with the intention that writers could go through it at their own pace and not feel pressured to crank out poems in rapid succession!

But then I lost the file!

Now that I’ve retrieved it, re-read, and edited the book, I can say, with some distance, that I feel it is a worthy contribution, a book to inspire and hone your own writing.

For those who know me in this space as a prose writer, I began as a poet. For over 20 years I solely wrote poems (well, there were those three unpublished novels). I attended workshops and conferences, dropped in and out of MFA programs, was published, and even received a few rewards.

I worked with many renowned American poets who greatly inspired and influenced my own writing. What I did not get, were lessons on craft. All of the numerous workshops I attended focused on providing us with the inspiration to write. The basic model was we read poems by other poets, then wrote our own, then they were analyzed in workshops. The focus was on the content, not how the content as delivered, and how different techniques could shape that. The closest we got to craft lessons was being given a poem as a model, and then being instructed to use it to inspire a similar poem. This was a sure way to churn out imitators, not innovators, and it wasn’t until I began studying with Fran Quinn in my late 30s, after publishing two books, that I seriously began to consider craft and apply it to my own poems, which got a lot better. I was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New American Poets, received a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and was published multiple times by prestigious magazines like The Beloit Poetry Journal. I may have been able to generate deep feelings and arresting images, but I needed those nuts and bolts.

When I was younger, I would have resisted craft lessons any way. I wanted to be free to write whatever I wanted, however I wanted to. This was an important stage in my development because I really needed to express. (I remember a guy I had a crush on politely tell me he wasn’t interested in me once because I had a lot to express, and that just wasn’t his thing.)

In my 20s, expression was everything. While I don’t disavow the poems I wrote in my extended youth, there are some beautiful and authentic feelings and images, interestingly enough, the only one I would include, if asked, in a “Selected Works,” is a poem written in form, a pantoum. Pretty much everything else I wrote from that time would fall apart if you tried to pick it up, would flow right through the cracks in a basket, no matter how tightly woven.

Maybe some poets just intuitively understand craft and are able to incorporate it in their poems from the very beginning, but for those who can’t, I’ve written this book, a series of 30 lessons that include inspiration for a poem along with a specific lesson on craft. I think it has relevance for beginning writers as well as those who have been at it for a while, whose poems may not have landed the way they’ve wanted because they are in need of some honing.

I hope you enjoy the book, and of course write some brilliant poems that add to the light of the world. My plan is to release one of these lessons a month to paid subscribers and hold a Zoom where people can share their work. I am also available for 1:1 personalized journeys through the book for those looking for focused, individualized guidance. Email me if you are interested in that and we can discuss arrangements.

Thank you so much for supporting my work financially. It really means the world to me. I work very hard at these posts, my teaching, and my books, without little or no financial compensation. I am thrilled to begin shifting that with the Substack platform. I am truly grateful. for those wanting to upgrade now to receive your gift, Weaving a Basket of Words, subscriptions are $70 a year or $7 a month.