allowed to well up

Poet, allow the music to well up in and around your words.

many flows

Look closely at the mainstream and you’ll see the many currents, eddies and wavelets.

get out there

Poet, get out of your head and go engage the world.

change it

Print is only a temporary arresting of the text—change it if you need to.

worry word

Poet, keep that worry word.

skin in the game

Poet, be thankful the typo you suffered was not a tattoo.

what kind of

Poet, ask what kind of ‘flower’, what kind of ‘bird’, what ‘tree’?

against spill

Poet, don’t just spill—distill.

nothing like it

Poet, write the poem that doesn’t remind you of any other poem.

pin it

Poet, pin it all on one poem.

poetics in four words

Gerard Manley Hopkins in “Pied Beauty” gave the best statement of a poetics: “All things counter, original, spare, strange...”

what art must do

Like in the lyrics to that Evanescence song (Bring Me to Life), the charge to all artists and poets should be: “Wake me up inside.”

killer lyric

Poet, write the killer lyric.

cut it

Poet, don’t end the poem—just cut it.

crack of the lash

Poet, crack that first line like a lash.

woolgathering

Poet, don’t worry over your woolgathering ways—that’s how poems get made.

jail break

Poet, make a genre jail break.

contra beckett

Fail better? No, poet, fail more beautifully.

final lines

Poet, write the poem as though it will be your last.

really funny

Poet, don’t be a wannabe comedian.