ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

writing poetry

  • Poetry Review: Ted Kooser,”Flying by Night”

    One of the truisms of American poetry is that some of the most original poetry written in the 20th century was written by non-professional poets—that is, poets who had their primary careers in fields other than writing or teaching writing. Unencumbered by more traditional poetic relationships and poetic responsibilities, poets like Wallace Stevens and William… Read more

  • Back in the North Country

    II am back in Minnesota after spending a week with my daughter and son-in-law in Brooklyn. Just a few weeks from Opening Day and we have snow here. I have mentioned here before that I grew up in Montana. When I start complaining about snow this time of year, I try to remind myself that… Read more

  • Wandering in Brooklyn

    I am back in Brooklyn this week, hanging out with my daughter and son-in-law. I’m spending my time prepping a poetry manuscript and really just wandering. Ultimately, I think I’m trying to center myself after the death of my brother, Paul, last week. I am a wanderer by nature. The best part of traveling for… Read more

  • Sending Out Poems Again

    Winter is apparently in no mood to let go of its reign here in the North Country. A snowstorm on Wednesday and cold temperatures have returned to Minnesota—a temporary reminder of what we have just been through. In February, I dialed back my postings here at ClimbingSky. I began spending the time I had freed up starting the… Read more

  • POETRY BOOK REVIEW: Poetry and Ambition by Donald Hall

    The best way to learn about poetry is to read poetry, and to read poets talking about it. With that in mind, over the next month I will be highlighting a number of books that feature poets talking about poetry, beginning with the book Poetry and Ambition: Essays 1982–88 by Donald Hall. The greatest challenge in reviewing… Read more

  • Friday’s Food For Thought: Auden on Poetry

    [Those who complain about the ambiguity or obscurity of modern poetry] “should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another.” ~ W. H. Auden Read more

  • Book Review: The Dyer’s Hand by W.H. Auden

    More than any poet, I associate Auden with mountains because that is where I first seriously read him. I carried a volume of his selected poems into the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness when I worked trail crew there for the United States Forest Service during summers in the early 1980s. In the evenings, after everyone else went… Read more