by Andrea Bates
No matter what happens, I always carry a notebook and my favorite pen du jour. No matter what happens, I write it all down. And if not all, then at least the parts I remember. This year more pages detailed the things I would prefer to forget. But the writer in me must [...]
Meredith Trede, Toadlily’s co-editor/publisher, will be reading from her new book of poems, Field Theory, on Saturday, November 12th at 2:00 at the Warner Library, 121 North Broadway, Tarrytown, NY, www.warnerlibrary.org, and on Sunday, November 13th at 4:30, with B. K. Fischer, at The Blue Door Gallery, 13 Riverdale Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10701, (914) 375-5100, [...]
On Thursday, October 6, 1:00-2:30 p.m., Toadlily poets will be reading at the JCC of Mid-Westchester, 999 Wilmot Road, Scarsdale, (914) 472-3300. Details: jccmw.org
By Andrea Bates
Inside my bedroom closet there is nothing for me to wear. Not literally, of course. I could choose from: a pair of jeans too baggy in the bum, a skirt that threatens to slide down my hips unless it is nipped at the waist with a safety pin, or a black “librarian” cardigan [...]
by Andrea Bates
“We have 62 senses at my last count.” – Paulus Berensohn
In July, through a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, I attended the week-long program Black Mountain College: An Artistic and Educational Legacy in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. On day three of the program, Paulus Berensohn, poet, potter, weaver, bookmaker, [...]
by Andrea Bates
If you have an ear for language, and if you pay attention, then you often notice when a certain word or phrase becomes the hot new cliché. I’ve noticed a few lately: at the end of the day; really? (said with a sarcastic lilt); and, of course, it is what it is. I’ve [...]
By Andrea Bates
To mow my backyard is to stir up a bowl of dust. To view my notebook is to see pages of blank. No grass. No poems. No rain. No Muse. It’s time to pray to the gods of rain and poetry. We’re in a drought.
There’s something about the rain that makes for good [...]
By Andrea Bates
I’ve been on a tear the last few weeks, spring cleaning my little house and I’ll admit, I’ve been ruthless in my de-cluttering. Using the two key questions asked by de-cluttering pros (do I love it? do I need it/use it?), I found it fairly easy to determine what had to stay (the [...]
By Andrea Bates
So it’s once again the cruelest month, but we poets should be celebrating. After all, we have a whole nationally recognized month to tout our cause for beauty and justice and word play and well-formed lines and images that hum themselves off the page and into the ears of our readers.
But the gorilla [...]
By Andrea Bates
“Ineffable” is one of my favorite words. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, if you believe (as I do) that poets should be able to write about those things that are typically difficult to express. These last few weeks there has been no sound of my fountain pen scratching paper or my fingers furiously clicking [...]
