Quite Excellent

Cape Cod Pantoum Maria Nazos Tonight you’re loaning Billy your car, a brand-new seal-gray Volkswagen Passat with four doors, though last week at 3 a.m., he stole your canoe, and sank it in the autumn sea, then swam ashore. Tonight you’re lending Billy your car—it’s brand-new— and he’s a well-meaning, blue-eyed Byronic drinking man who last week, at 3 a.m., stole your beached canoe, and when it san...

                             Your body wakes into its quiet rattle.                                          Ropes & ropes . . .

"Leisure" is both celebratory and cautionary, a questioning and observation on the value of taking a rest. My poem is about my daughter and the frustrations of trying to get a child ready for school.

A short poem, "Death" says a lot in four lines, leaving me wondering about the inevitably of the end.

A poem advocating for Alzheimer's awareness, I note how effective it is at exploring presenting hope in the face of horror.

A discussion of the emotional shackles placed on boys, and how their release - through tears - is both freeing and unifying.

I enjoy a poem about being young, and in love, and awkward.

How does the spider experience the world? Is it possible that his experience is not unlike ours?

I read and briefly analyze Charles Simic's "The Infinite" for the anxiety and comfort the personified Infinite seems to give us.

I discuss how the selection and omission of imagery, grammar, titles, and stanzaic structure create meaning.

On this, the second episode of Quite Excellent, I read William Cullen Bryant's "Summer Wind" and consider young romance.

On this, the first episode of Quite Excellent, I read and share my thoughts on Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry," a poem concerned with the tortured relationship many students have with poetry.