Tag Archives: Poems

Five Poems in Apple Valley Review

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Adam Penna

I’ve got a few poems published in the newest edition of the Apple Valley Review.  Thanks to Leah Browning, editor of AVR.

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On Little Songs & Lyrics to Genji

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Adam Penna

Next month, S4N Books releases my first full-length collection of poems, Little Songs & Lyrics to Genji.  Actually, the book contains not one full-length collection, but two long sequences.  The first, “Little Songs,” is a series of sonnet-like poems presented … Continue reading →

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Sabbatical

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Adam Penna

I started this blog to correspond with my sabbatical, which began officially in January and ended when I taught my first class in September.  It was a rough few days the first week, and I’m still not altogether used to … Continue reading →

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Revision Means to See Again

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Adam Penna

I wonder sometimes why I began to write.  And sometimes I wonder why I still do.  I know my process well enough to know that I especially feel this way after a long bout of writing.  The last year has … Continue reading →

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Humility & Poetry

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Adam Penna

Eliot says that humility is endless.  And Thoreau says that “humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.”  But I’ve been thinking lately about a book called The Wisdom of the Desert, translated by Thomas Merton, which is a compendium of meditations, lessons … Continue reading →

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On Poetic Insight

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Adam Penna

I listened to a good friend and a fine poet lecture on teaching writing a few weeks ago.  I was impressed especially by how she goes about teaching.  Her pedagogy is very similar to mine, and I chalk that up … Continue reading →

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A Few Thoughts After a Long Trip

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Adam Penna

It is part of the poet’s job to get used to his inner rhythms, those seemingly predictable patterns which, from a distance, map his temperament.  I was reading some old poems yesterday and found that, as I have always hoped, the new poems … Continue reading →

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The Dead Don’t Sing

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Adam Penna

I was feeling pretty awful the other day.  It was the 17th.  I know that because I picked up my Book of Common Prayer, turned to the psalm reading in the psalter for the 17th day, and read psalm 88. … Continue reading →

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An Activity of the Spirit with Many Names

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Adam Penna

To write poems before midlife begins, really, is nothing much.  Nothing truly vital competes for one’s consciousness like it will soon.  And the longer we make adolescence, the less a risk writing poetry is for as long as one depends … Continue reading →

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It Must Root in the Heart

Posted on January 29, 2009 by Adam Penna

Poetry requires living a real life.  This means daily interaction with the real world with its real requirements, and its real people with their real demands.  It is poetry, which becomes a kind of hermitage, a walled-off garden, in which … Continue reading →

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