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  • To Emend the World

    Number of comments: 0
    In "God Bless the Experimental Writers," Corey Mesler gently and humorously tackles the reasons why many of us write. I'll admit it, I had to look up the definition of emend, especially since it's such an important part of this poem.

    John Cage said that all writing,' [...]
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    Posted: December 04, 2009, 12:25pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • 30 in 30

    Number of comments: 0
    Inspired by the Northampton Arts Council's 30 Poems in 30 Days Challenge and all my local poet friends, I quietly committed myself to drafting 30 haiku (or haiku-ish things) in the month of November. I'm proud to say that I did it! Here are 4 of my favorites, in no' [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2009, 1:00pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Let Us Now Praise Famous Cliches

    Number of comments: 3
    Nobody hates cliches more than poets. Yet cliches do what we are trying to do in our poems: create condensed, memorable, useful metaphors. In this fun article in the Boston Globe, writer James Parker takes us through the history and function of cliches, the phrases we (to use a [...]
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    Posted: November 13, 2009, 4:18pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Mazel Tov

    Number of comments: 2
    I'd thought to crack a bottle
    of champagne against the corner
    of our first home

    instead, the first thing I broke
    was a basement window,
    throwing a ball for the dog.

    Oh, the immediacy of shatter and collapse
    the laws of momentum and gravity
    so unbreakable![...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 2:32pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Magnetic Poetry

    Number of comments: 1
    I don't really like magnetic poetry. It's too limiting (or I'm too inflexible) for me to get really creative with the limited selection of words it offers the writer of casual kitchen poetry. However, I do really like this poem that my wife & I co-created with the magnetic poetry' [...]
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    Posted: October 15, 2009, 10:40am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Grandmother Oliver

    Number of comments: 2
    She said to write it down
    and so I did:

    Above a wild white rose,
    the moon bled onto clouds.

    "Smell that," said my love,
    "it's still summer."

    I put my face into the flower
    and drowned in fragrance

    on this cool September night
    after Mary' [...]
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    Posted: September 29, 2009, 11:29pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Poem for Fall

    Number of comments: 5
    Yesterday I ate the first fresh, tart, crisp, local Cortland apple of my just-beginning New England autumn. It crunched and snapped in my mouth. I remembered learning in botany class that apple blossoms must be pollinated several separate times in order for a fruit to form. When you open an [...]
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    Posted: September 17, 2009, 7:50am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • What Makes A Writer?

    Number of comments: 4
    I just saw the movie Julie & Julia. It was fun. But of course I couldn't help paying special attention to the movie's subtext about how a writer is made and defined. The beginning of the movie shows the main character, Julie, at loose ends, with lots of promise and [...]
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    Posted: September 08, 2009, 11:01am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Eternal Paper

    Number of comments: 2
    I was both entertained and educated by Michael Agger's article in Slate about writing for the web (writing for the web is part of my day job, so I'm continually learning more about such things).

    I was simultaneously heartened by the author's observation of the permanence of paper.' [...]
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    Posted: August 18, 2009, 11:32am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Poetry for the Young

    Number of comments: 0
    I recently found this post by author and fellow Hampshire alum Leah Hager Cohen on her blog Love As A Found Object. Cohen describes a momentary yet wonderful solution to a two-part dilemma: how to reconnect with her teenage son, and which poem to suggest he memorize for English [...]
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    Posted: August 12, 2009, 12:21pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Sculpted Language

    Number of comments: 3
    Last Saturday I treated myself with a trip to the Smith College Museum of Art, to see the show I Heard a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill. (Actually, I treated myself with time, but the entrance was free thanks to a pass I checked out of the Lilly Library. [...]
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    Posted: August 05, 2009, 4:04pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Road Trip to Indiana

    Number of comments: 1




    [...]
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    Posted: July 24, 2009, 12:16am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Extreme Reading

    Number of comments: 2
    For today's post, I bring you an essay by prose poet John Olson. While at first I found "Extreme Reading" difficult to get into - it really reads as more of a prose poem at the beginning - I was soon able to drop into Olson's particular and illuminating logic [...]
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    Posted: June 28, 2009, 11:33pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • The Bear Details

    Number of comments: 2
    If you are anywhere in the area of Easthampton, MA, between now and October, you really should walk around and see the bears. You can download a map here.

    All the bears were created by local artists, and they are wonderfully varied in their themes. [...]
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    Posted: June 19, 2009, 3:21pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Visiting Emily Dickinson

    Number of comments: 2
    There comes a time in every young poet's life (at least for those of us who live in my part of the world) - a time to visit the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. For me that time was last Saturday, and I had a beautiful experience on the guided' [...]
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    Posted: June 17, 2009, 1:50pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Earth is Hiring

    Number of comments: 2
    It's the time of year for sitting through graduation ceremonies. Education is such a big part of the economy where I live, I think that people here have a much higher than average chance of sitting through at least one or two addresses. It's too bad that the two graduations [...]
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    Posted: June 04, 2009, 3:01pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Bibliophile

    Number of comments: 1
    "Sometimes, I wish I could read faster."

    If you can relate to that statement, check out this little animation I found on the website of the Boston Book Festival. [...]
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    Posted: May 18, 2009, 10:32am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • No Time for Writer's Block

    Number of comments: 4
    Wishing for more time to write is a trap into which we writers often fall. What's more important is to make the best of the time you have. I can fit small poems quite easily into the chinks and pauses and cracks of my life. Even novelists such as the' [...]
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    Posted: May 11, 2009, 9:41am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • You'll Know You're Famous When Your Words are Carved in Stone

    Number of comments: 2
    Every so often I like to take my country self into the city - Boston, that is - and tool around with my urban poet friends. On my last visit, as I walked into the Stony Brook stop on the orange line, I stopped to read words that I saw [...]
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    Posted: May 06, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Poetry off the Page

    Number of comments: 0
    One of my friends is teaching poetry in her son's elementary school, as a community service. She had a book called The Adventures of Dr. Alphabet: 104 Unusual Ways to Write Poetry in the Classroom and the Community. Many of the exercises in this book have the class write' [...]
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    Posted: May 01, 2009, 11:09am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Fresh Young Voices

    Number of comments: 0
    Last night I went to hear Paul Muldoon read at the Smith College Poetry center, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that we would also be hearing from the winner and runners up of the 3rd annual poetry prize for high school girls. Check out their really great poems [...]
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    Posted: April 20, 2009, 2:35pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Great Month for Poetry

    Number of comments: 1
    Despite what TS Eliot wrote (“April is the cruelest month”), I think April is a great time for National Poetry Month, especially for those of us who are committing to do some extra writing during these 30 days. At least in the Northern Hemisphere, since spring is inspirational and [...]
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    Posted: March 27, 2009, 12:44pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Working and Writing

    Number of comments: 2
    Yesterday, in the course of a conversation, I told a friend that I nearly went into landscape architecture instead of writing. “Why?” she asked. So I had to ask myself—why did I abandon several years of experience in landscaping and horticulture to “start over” on a new vocational path?

    [...]
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    Posted: March 25, 2009, 7:56am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Poem of a Certain Place and Time

    Number of comments: 1
    So I logged onto the Writer's Almanac today as I often do, and found a poem by James Tate entitled "Suburban Buffalo." What are the chances that I have seen those same buffalo? I have seen them. James Tate teaches (taught?) at UMass Amherst, which is a short trip' [...]
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    Posted: March 11, 2009, 4:21pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Vessels of Words

    Number of comments: 0
    There are different stages
    to this process:
    throwing poems
    letting them dry
    trimming them
    glazing them
    sometimes smashing them
    and starting again. [...]
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    Posted: March 08, 2009, 11:21am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Practicing my Cinquains

    Number of comments: 2
    You could write some, too! They’re the perfect length for a coffee break, or while you’re waiting in a doctor’s office. See where it takes you. Relax your mind and you might be surprised - or just have a little creative fun.

    Playground
    Snow-covered, somnolent
    Waiting, watching, [...]
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    Posted: February 26, 2009, 9:48am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Poetry Variety Show

    Number of comments: 1
    Yesterday’s Spoken Word: Page and Stage, put on by the Northampton Arts Council as part of their Four Sundays in February series, was a variety show at its best.

    The poets who performed were diverse in the familiar, external ways: ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation. Just [...]
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    Posted: February 16, 2009, 12:50pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Writing about Pottery

    Number of comments: 1
    Add this to the great and growing collection of random things I found on the web while supposedly doing something else: students at Exeter Academy being challenged to write vivid, descriptive poetry about pottery. It makes me want to go do that, too.

    Learning to Write: From Ceramics [...]
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    Posted: January 30, 2009, 9:35pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Call for Garden Poems

    Number of comments: 2
    They say that you always give other people the advice that you need to hear. In the spirit of that, I am posting this press release (which I found on Poetic Asides) that calls for poems about gardening. I plan on submitting something later this week, and I hope [...]
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    Posted: January 28, 2009, 11:01am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • What a Morning!

    Number of comments: 0
    Yesterday was a day of wonderful celebration. I've not engaged much in national politics until now, yet I couldn't help but be inspired by the hope that Barack Obama represents for our country.

    The reading of inauguration poems last night in Northampton was an event full of community spirit [...]
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    Posted: January 21, 2009, 8:36am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Inaugural Poems on the Way

    Number of comments: 1
    There were few things that interrupted the regular schedule of classes while I was in high school. One of them was Bill Clinton's inauguration. I have a very clear memory of sitting in the small school's library, watching Maya Angelou read On the Pulse of Morning. I was 14 [...]
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    Posted: December 22, 2008, 10:48am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Private in Public

    Number of comments: 3
    I recently heard Philip Seymour Hoffman being interviewed by Terri Gross on Fresh Air. He is one of my favorite actors, because he plays the downtrodden guy so frickin’ well, and also because even when he’s not the star of a film, you can tell he’s putting all his energy [...]
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    Posted: December 17, 2008, 9:58am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Reading Girls / Girls Reading

    Number of comments: 1
    I've been trying to read Twilight to see what all the hype is about. So far, I'm not really enjoying it but haven't stopped reading because I want to see what happens. I'm doing the skim-until-you-don't-know-what's-happening-then-go-back-and-
    see-what-happened thing.

    Fascination with fantasy and creatures of other worlds is, to [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2008, 11:10am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Open Words: A New Writing Workshop

    Number of comments: 0
    Let your words out to play at the Pioneer Valley's newest writing workshop, Open Words. The first 8-week session begins January 7, 2009, in Easthampton, MA.

    I will be leading this workshop using the Amherst Writers and Artists method of honoring every writer's unique voice. Much of [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2008, 9:00am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • For Mumbai

    Number of comments: 0
    candle wax puddles
    where blood spattered and pooled
    the trains cannot take us away now

    raise your hand in prayer
    unlike jasmine and marigolds
    these memories will not wilt [...]
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    Posted: December 03, 2008, 3:18pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • On Keeping Going

    Number of comments: 2
    This morning was one of those times when I sat down and scribbled on a blank piece of paper words that seemed to have no purpose or meaning or need for existence. But I kept going anyway because it's the only way to keep the channel open, to keep the' [...]
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    Posted: December 03, 2008, 8:35am EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Bitextual

    Number of comments: 3
    Well, a Google search for "bitextual" turns up several different types of entries, but what I mean by this word is an author who writes in more than one genre. I first heard it used this way by Chris Abani (poet and novelist). I don't know if he coined the' [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2008, 11:15pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Open Words: A New Writing Workshop

    Number of comments: 0
    Let your words out to play at the Pioneer Valley's newest writing workshop, Open Words. The first 8-week session begins January 7, 2009, in Easthampton, MA.

    I will be leading this workshop using the Amherst Writers and Artists method of honoring every writer's unique voice. Much of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 20, 2008, 3:34pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • eggsa feverthe wavesa seed ...

    Number of comments: 7
    eggs
    a fever
    the waves
    a seed casing
    water
    morning
    day
    horses
    rules
    norms
    buds
    silence
    the mold
    a pattern
    bread
    taboos
    bad habits
    new ground
    the fast
    records
    the seal
    wedding glasses
    pinatas
    hearts

    I wrote this list poem after a discussion with my friend Bob led me [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2008, 10:08pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Election

    Number of comments: 1
    They called it a landslide
    but that's such a negative image.
    I say it was a huge flock of birds
    rising all together
    into the morning sky.' [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2008, 3:48pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Yay, Obama! Yay, America!

    Number of comments: 0
    Oh, I am so happy. So relieved and hopeful and proud.

    As Obama said in his speech last night:

    This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2008, 2:41pm EST
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • New Writing Group Forming

    Number of comments: 0
    I will be leading a new writing group beginning January 2009 based on the wonderful Amherst Writers and Artists method developed by Pat Schneider (author of Writing Alone and with Others). I myself participated for two years in an AWA group led by Maureen Buchanan Jones, and I credit that [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2008, 4:01pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • My Emily Dickinson Walks

    Number of comments: 2
    Having a bouncy young dog gets me out of my apartment three times a day for walks around the neighborhood. She's good like that, getting me my exercise. The downside is that I've been going far less often for longer hikes in the surrounding area. A few years ago, I [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2008, 7:31am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Quote of the Day

    Number of comments: 1
    "Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being" [...]
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    Posted: October 01, 2008, 10:29am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Powerful Article

    Number of comments: 4
    I encourage you all to read this blog post and consider its implications. I was grateful for the reminder of how far we still have to go as a culture.

    This is Your Nation on White Priviledge [...]
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    Posted: September 29, 2008, 11:28am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Writing Tips from Gregory Maguire

    Number of comments: 1
    “Like everyone else, I began life in anonymity, as a child.” It sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale. It was the opening line of a talk by Gregory Maguire, given last Tuesday at The Williston Northampton School. After reading from Wicked, Maguire traced the development of his creative [...]
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    Posted: September 22, 2008, 4:20pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Chinese Moon Festival

    Number of comments: 7
    Thanks to Daphne Burt (Chaplain at the school where I work) for letting me know that today is the Chinese Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival. On this day, families eat dinner under the moon, eat mooncakes, pomeloes, and tell the story of Chang’e, the moon maiden.

    Some of you [...]
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    Posted: September 15, 2008, 8:28am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Environmental Writing Contest

    Number of comments: 0
    I recently received this notice from the Union of Concerned Scientists:

    From Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth century to Rachel Carson and E.O. Wilson in the twentieth, writers have played a profound role in drawing attention to our natural environment and inspiring people to [...]
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    Posted: September 10, 2008, 12:52pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • Writers for Obama

    Number of comments: 1
    Event
    Writers for Obama fundraiser
    Sunday, September 21, 2008 - 4:00pm
    Hotel Northampton Ballroom, 36 King Street, Northampton, MA
    Donations: $50 and up (students with ID $10).
    RSVP or get further infomation: Gordon & Linda Tripp (413) 665-3580

    Sticker
    Show your well-reasoned support! Get your stickers [...]
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    Posted: September 08, 2008, 11:23am EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff

  • I Survived the 3-day Novel Contest

    Number of comments: 2


    I return to this blog after running a marathon...a writing marathon, that is. I signed up for the 3-day Novel Contest and chained myself to my desk over Labor Day weekend. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, and I drank a lot of coffee. [...]
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    Posted: September 01, 2008, 8:23pm EDT
    by Kat Good-Schiff
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