Monthly Archives: March 2014

Diane Lockward has published a writing conference masquerading as a book. The Crafty Poet, A Portable Workshop is a comprehensive collection of craft tips with

accompanying poem and writing prompts for immediate application of what was presented in the craft tip. With 27 craft tips and and fifty-six poets contributing, this is a treasure trove of inspiration, challenge, and tutoring in the craft of creating poetry.

From an individual trying to improve through self-guidance and exploration, community workshops and writing groups, to class room instructors – poets and emerging writers alike will find worth and value in use of Lockward’s book as a resource or text.

The book is divided into ten poetic concepts covering the gamut from what generates material to revision  to recycling from the dregs and overcoming writers block. There is discussion of diction, sound, voice, imagery, layers, syntax, and lines. The Crafty Poet assumes a basic understanding of poetics, and is not for the beginner. A well-motivated and confident beginner would find this book useful though as an impetus for self-instruction. Unfamiliar terms and assumed knowledge serve as bread crumbs for deeper exploration into the craft of poetry creation. For the intended audience of the knowledgeable reader, each chapter is a delight on specific practice, review, or re-introduction on a poetic concept and application of craft.

An added jewel in each section is “The Poet on the Poem” which puts the reader in the room with Diane Lockward discussing with a poet a specific poem by that poet. Diane’s observances and the poet’s discussion loosely reflects the craft discussion for the preceding section in the book. More so, the reader hears from the poet’s own perspective what was driving that poem, what influences or experiences impact not only the poem but the work of the poet.

Sample poems (of which there are forty-five) are suggestions not end all be all answers for the prompts provided. This reflects the prompt as an entry not a destination in the creation of a poem. Consider the prompt for a particular craft tip as strategy for implementation not instructions for a particular “product” of poetic creation.

There are many formal programs for poetic instruction from community education, community college, graduate programs and writing conference workshops and retreats that immerse one into the writing community. Diane Lockward has gathered together a cornucopia of information that will educate, motivate, and inspire poets seeking rejuvenation, review and perhaps reminder on poetic concepts as well as provide the poetry student with digestible bites of craft education in a format that goes with the writer instead of the writer going to the class room or conference.

The Crafty Poet, A Portable Workshop is THE book, if I knew I’d be somewhere in isolation from the writing community, unable for whatever reason to take a class or attend a conference, stuck on a deserted island or a long train, plane, or other journey – this is the book I’d keep with me so I’d learn, be inspired and most importantly hone my own tools of the craft. You don’t need an environment of isolation to benefit from this book though – this is a resource the individual or a writing group will return to again and again.

VAH: Diane, welcome to Three by Five. The first question is always why do you write?
DL: I write poetry because it makes me happier than anything else I do. If I get a poem going in the morning, I feel exhilarated all day long. I carry that draft around in my head and am alert to images and words that might be useful in the poem. I become more vigilant. I write poetry because it’s the place where I live my life most intensely.

VAH: Talk a little about when you wrote your first poem…
DL: I never had a single teacher in elementary, middle, or high school who taught poetry or asked me to write a poem. In college I studied some poetry and liked it, but the only creative writing I did was fiction. In graduate school I took several poetry courses and loved them, but they were academic courses, not creative ones; I still wasn’t doing any writing of poetry. Then one year when I was teaching high school English, I saw a call in the English Journal for teachers to test poetry-writing assignments for a textbook William Stafford was writing for high school students. I volunteered. Every few weeks for the next six months I received one or two poetry prompts. From the very first one, I was hooked. Something lit up inside me. As requested, I sent back all of my poems. From the poems sent in by the volunteers, Stafford selected sample poems to use in his book. One of mine, “Serendipity,” an acrostic poem, was selected. That became my first published poem. It appears in Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises, published in 1994 by NCTE and still in print. I haven’t stopped writing since then.

VAH: Do you have a favorite literary character?
DL: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. I love the fierceness of his passion, his darkness, his loyalty. He is such a mysterious character, one we can never fully know. He is a romantic character and a complex one, having both heroic and villainous traits. I admire him and am terrified by him.

VAH: Imagine you are stranded on a deserted island. What book or series of books would you want and why?
DL: I’d want Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels, Wendell Berry’s novels, and Fannie Flagg’s novels. All three authors give us delightful characters, have charming dashes of humor in their stories, touch our hearts, and lift our spirits. Ordinarily, I go for darker, more complex characters and plots, but if I were stranded on a deserted island, I’d want books that provided happy endings and offered hope that I might someday be rescued. Of course, I’d need some poetry, too. I’d want several issues of my long-time favorite journal, Poet Lore, and several issues of a recent favorite, The Cincinnati Review.

VAH: Is there someone you’d identify as the biggest influence on your development as a writer?
DL: My mother, not because she encouraged me to write but because without even trying she instilled in me a love of language. I remember her reading me the entire Wizard of Oz and books of fairy tales. Later, she gave me, one by one, all the Nancy Drew books. She used “big” words and when I asked, she told me what they meant. She had wanted to be a journalist, but her parents wouldn’t allow that. They said it wasn’t a profession for a woman. Instead of allowing her to attend the college she wanted to attend for journalism, they sent her to Duke where she majored in French, a language she never spoke thereafter. Before she died, I’d had my first article published in the English Journal, an article about poetry. She was very proud of that. But she died before I’d begun writing poetry so never saw any of my poems. I like to think I’m writing for the two of us.
VAH: That’s a terrific story Diane. It reminds me of my own mom, who sent me a note in college I treasure to this day that simply said, “Are you still writing?” I think your mother would be proud of the poet you’ve become.

For a sampling of Diane’s work, visit: Sunday Poem feature at Gwarlingo, (includes 4 poems). “Linguini” on The Writer’s Almanac . “Blueberry” on The Writer’s Almanac

Diane Lockward is the author of The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop (Wind Publications, 2013) and three poetry books, most recently Temptation by Water. Her previous books are What Feeds Us, which received the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, and Eve’s Red Dress. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Against Perfection and Greatest Hits: 1997-2010. Her poems have been included in such anthologies as Poetry Daily: 360 Poems from the World’s Most Popular Poetry Website and Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times, and in such journals as Harvard Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her work has also been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac.

Find Diane Lockward via: website, Blog, Facebook , Twitter.

Join us on the 13th for more with Diane Lockward.

Three by Five will host Diane Lockward in March. Diane Lockward is the author of The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop (Wind Publications, 2013) and three poetry books, most recently Temptation by Water. Her previous books are What Feeds Us, which received the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, and Eve’s Red Dress. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Against Perfection and Greatest Hits: 1997-2010. Her poems have been included in such anthologies as Poetry Daily: 360 Poems from the World’s Most Popular Poetry Website and Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times, and in such journals as Harvard Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her work has also been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac.

Find Diane Lockward via: website, Blog, Facebook , Twitter.

Here is her poem “Prunis Persica,” read by Julie L. Moore: