My excellent publisher, Jane Commane of Nine Arches Press, asked me to write a blog post about one of the poems in my collection, and the poem that came to mind was 'After Seeing Monet's Waterlilies And Then Hearing the News'. Here's an excerpt:

"When asked to write a blog post about a poem from my collection Terms and Conditions, at first I didn’t know which one to pick. And what to say about it? But when I leafed (on my Kindle, electronic leafing) through the book, this one stood out, the longest title and the feeling behind it still so raw, so present. And about what came after, what I discovered.

‘After Seeing Monet's Waterlilies And Then Hearing the News’ is exactly what happened. Let’s examine this like a journalist (which I used to be): Where, What, Why, When, Who.
Where was I? In the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon.

What was I doing there? I was in Portland taking a poetry course (with Sharon Olds. Yes, SHARON OLDS. I wanted only to sit at her feet. Oh my.)

Why the Art Museum? A few of us, my new classmates and their friends, decided to take time off, go into the city, see some art.

When? Now this is the question...

 Read the rest of the blog post here...

Carpool Poetry - and Much Giggling

Clive Birnie, poet and publisher, who runs the brilliant Burning Eye Books, has a venture he calls Carpool Poetry, in which he drives around one or more writers and videos him talking to them about their writing. So, here we are, talking very very seriously about my new books. (Warning: there is giggling. It's mostly me.)