Aug 6, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes
“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety....
Jun 15, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
I want you to know one thing. You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that...
Jun 9, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes
I read something today that really surprised me. The brilliant Kris Rusch wrote that some writers cannot write on planes. This surprised me, because I’ve never been one of those writers who just writes in a certain location or a certain environment. Sure,...
Jun 6, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Poetry
Bumblebees Are Made of Ash Martha Silano (@marthasilano in Thrush Literary Journal) The day is a dragonfly hovering in the Timothy. It could rain for months before the sun goes down. An orange buoy bobs while a sparrow sings through a wall. The world smells of cedar,...
May 28, 2018 | Current Ned Note, On Writing, Past Notes, Poetry
Last spring, I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Charif Shanahan at the AWP conference, when we were both invited readers for a reading sponsored by our publishers. I’m excited that his poem Ligament appeared in The New York Times Magazine in the...
