This poem began as an itch in winter. I was watching smoke escape from a neighbor’s chimney and couldn’t help comparing it to the messages I’d exchanged with my partner, who was, at the time, far away. Language is, of course, mediated (it meanders), but sometimes it strikes like a jolt, pinning you to your body. The poem, I hope, does both, circling the nerve and hitting it dead on.
Kelly Hoffer on "An exercise in which I try to see blue in the red flame." |
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"A Famous Christmas Poem Could Sell for $500,000"
“Klarnet said he had found the copy of 'A Visit From St. Nicholas,' the fifth in [Clement Clarke] Moore’s handwriting, among manuscripts that belonged to relatives of Adrian Van Sinderen, a prominent collector who died in 1963. It’s probably not surprising that Moore’s poem would have appealed to Van Sinderen: He wrote 25 books that had to do with Christmas, according to his obituary in The New York Times.”
viaTHE NEW YORK TIMES |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Octavio Quintanilla on Drafts
"I write and rewrite the poem over and over because small but significant changes happen in the process, especially in terms of the poem earning my trust and having me believe in what it says. To get there, I rewrite the poem till every word is embodied with breath or heartbeat....As I rewrite, I teach myself my own poem. Internalize it." |
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