“Even after a poem has hardened into print, it may continue to represent a risk, a chance, a surmise, or a hypothesis about itself.” —Mary Kinzie. A Poet’s Guide to Poetry, U Chicago Press
Thank you, Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Dave Seter, for letting me know about Mary Kinzie.
Dave’s response to Mary’s quote:
“What this means to me is, a piece of writing is never truly ‘done’ so instead of worrying so much about whether it is ‘done,’ we should share our writing with each other even when it feels a little raw, because there is power in the original idea and sometimes it takes time for the words to catch up with the idea.”
“While excess can be fun when writing nature poems, many poets find minimalism is preferable. Emily Dickinson wrote several nature poems — often in fewer than 10 lines — including ‘Who robbed the woods’ and ‘My river runs to thee.’
One of the most concise poetic forms is also a nature poem: the haiku!
Many poets debate the number of lines and syllables (not everyone believes in the 5-7-5), but every haiku poet agrees haiku should focus on a brief moment, provide a sense of enlightenment, and offer a cutting and season word.”
Excerpt from “Poetic Asides” by Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest, July/August 2024.
“With nothing more than a pen and a notebook, nature journaling can help you slow down and create a reference you can call upon to bring your reader into the worlds you build on the page.”
Excerpted from “How Nature Journaling Can Help Your Writing,” by Maria Bengtson. Writer’s Digest, July/August 2024.
Go outside with pen and notebook, get settled, observe, use sensory detail to enhance your writing.
Bengtson suggests using these prompts
I notice . . .
I wonder . . .
It reminds me of . . .
“Your observations will create a reference that will help you transport your reader from their cozy chair to the world on your pages. Sketch a tree or flower or a critter you see.
The work of creating a rough map, schematic, or stick-figure diagram forces you to think about how things are related to one another, and how the environment and the things in it are structured.”
For example: Dave Seter’s poem, “Fox Trot.”
A curtain parted, beaded, of mustard grass.
Fox made an entrance and trotted across
an asphalt stage, expanse of empty parking spaces
stained with motor oil. Without missing a step.
The audience was wind, full of bluster,
phrased with pollen mitigated by a whisper
of unseen lilac. But the fox was seen
despite having gotten scent, or sixth sense,
college was closed, cars and people absent.
The fox’s coat was the color of caramelized sugar.
He/she/they paused like a debutante waiting
to be conferred royal title, the applause of a suitor,
but it was my nose that was in the air.
My heart on my sleeve hid a heart tattoo.
What is happiness, I asked, what sweetness
has been missing? But the fox didn’t answer.
Did the fox want to be seen frozen,
skilled as lawn statuary unmoved by wind?
Or did the fox just not want to give audience
dancing in a coat the color of caramelized sugar?
Dave Seter, civil/environmental engineer, poet, and essayist is the Sonoma County Poet Laureate for 2024-2026.
He is the author of Don’t Sing to Me of Electric Fences (Cherry Grove Collections, 2021) and Night Duty (Main Street Rag, 2010).
He writes about social and environmental issues, including the intersection of the built world and the natural world. He is the recipient of two Pushcart nominations.
His poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in various publications including Appalachia, Cider Press Review, The Florida Review, The Hopper, The Museum of Americana, Poetry Northwest (forthcoming), and others.
He has been an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and has served on the Board of Directors of Marin Poetry Center.
He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering from Princeton University and his graduate degree in humanities from Dominican University of California.
The Big Windows Reviewis the literary magazine of the Writing Center at Washtenaw Community College (WCC), in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“We post a new poem or piece of short prose on the site every Tuesday and Friday. Then, four times a year, we’ll bundle up those poems and prose pieces to make a free digital issue of The Big Windows Review.”
Thanks to Dave Seter for letting me know about this.
Dave’s writing, “Weightless Hitchhiker” was published in the April 5, 2024 issue of The Big Windows Review.
The RavensPerch is an online international literary and visual arts magazine. We welcome established as well as emerging writers, tomorrow’s stars. TRP is unique in that the platform brings the literary world together across generations: a home for adults, young adults and children. We publish poetry, fiction, non-fiction and visual art. We are interested in writing that makes us react — all the way from calmly to boisterously. We even give you permission to break our hearts and make us ask for more.
Thank you, Dave Seter, for letting me know about The RavensPerch. Dave has four poems in the February 9, 2023 issue.
Poems people will want to share with family and friends, neighbors and co-workers.
Poems people will remember for the rest of their lives.
Many people today are of the belief that they don’t “get” poetry, regarding a poem with almost the same trepidation they might regard, say, a complicated physics equation.
In fairness to those many people, some poems are dense. Or cryptic. Or full of confusing words. (Or all three.) Such poems can be intimidating. Such poems can sometimes dissuade people from reading more poetry . . . more.
Our goal is to bring compelling, meaningful, insightful fiction and poetry to you every month. Something you can ponder and gnaw on. Something to bring light, or at least, growth and understanding to our readers on a regular basis. No frivolous pieces here. Your time is too valuable. We’re serious about our words, and are selective in what we present to you, sifting through the mountains of words to pull out the diamonds.
I would like to share collage in writing with you, some things I learned from the poet Dave Seter.
His poem, “Fargo Airport, Waiting in a Bar” in The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healingis an example of using collage in poetry. The lines in italics in his poem are from signs on the wall and on the label on a bottle. He seamlessly incorporates “lines from others” into his poetry.
Look around you . . . what writing do you see that you can use in your writing?
Perhaps: A book title, a greeting card, writing on décor, writing on a tissue box, or a piece of mail.
Or: A note you have written, writing on a coffee mug, a sign on a wall.
A label on a jar, a can, or a bottle.
You can also use song lyrics as a jumping off point for your writing.
Writing Prompt: Today . . . or . . . Yesterday
Incorporate written words that you see into your writing.
A stanza from “Fargo Airport, Waiting in a Bar” by Dave Seter:
Waiting for a funeral, it seems the years collapse
into one moment. I want to find
the right thing to say to firemen and farmers,
who are kind, as they offer from
A Bucket of Beer Nine Dollars.
Dave Seter is the author of Night Duty, and Don’t Sing to Me of Electric Fences, a poetry collection due out from Cherry Grove Collections in 2021. A civil engineer and poet, he writes about social and environmental issues, including the intersection of the built world and the natural world.
Born in Chicago, he now lives in Sonoma County, California. He earned his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Princeton University and his graduate degree in humanities from Dominican University of California, where he studied ecopoetics.
Dave wrote his master’s thesis, “Introducing Godzilla to Marianne Moore’s Octopus of Ice at the Intersection of Global Warming, Environmental Philosophy, and Poetry,” based on Marianne Moore’s collage poem, “An Octopus (of ice).”
“This paper explores the question: How can a poet write an ecologically aware poem about global warming?”
