by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 16, 2021 | Poetry
Every poem is a blow against silence. ~ Carlos Fuentes *** “This is for the unforgettable… the ones who survived America by any means necessary. And the ones who didn’t.” Kwame Alexander’s book THE UNDEFEATED is an ode to the African American experience, a...
by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 9, 2021 | Poetry, Uncategorized
I love reading a poetry collection in many voices, and Walter Dean Myers’ HERE IN HARLEM is a masterful example of this. In his introduction, Myers writes that he was inspired by Yeats, Synge, and Spoon River Anthology to write about his beloved neighborhood in...
by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 2, 2021 | Poetry
I love reading biographies, and when an author succeeds in telling the story of a person’s life in poetry– that’s magic. In honor of National Poetry Month, here are three favorites I have come across lately. RUNAWAY: THE DARING ESCAPE OF ONA JUDGE by Ray...
by Mary E. Cronin | Mar 26, 2021 | Poetry
Writing is a solitary craft. But we also need the spark and alchemy of sharing with and learning from others. I’m right in the middle of a three-week poetry forms class led by poet Georgia Heard. I am learning wonderful techniques that will elevate my writing, but I’m...
by Mary E. Cronin | Mar 19, 2021 | Poetry
On this Poetry Friday, I made my first attempt at writing a reverso. Poet Marilyn Singer developed this form. She has written three books of reverso poems! This is her definition of the form: “A reverso is a poem with two halves. In a reverso, the second half...