where the writers are

Scott Owens's Blog

RSSSyndicate content
Aug.13.2012
HOW POEMS GET WRITTEN There is not a single answer to that premise. There is not a single answer to anything regarding poetry. Nevertheless, for myself, there is what might be called a pattern that the construction of a poem often follows. Often, what later becomes a poem begins with a...
Continue Reading » 1 comment
May.19.2011
Poem for This Saturday's ApocalypseMay 18, 2011by Scott Owens Put your things in order.Say your last farewells.Make contrition, complete penance.Say your prayers. Wait. The signs are unmistakable:earthquakes, Japanese tsunamis,Mississippi floods, tornadoesin the mountains of Tennessee. The world...
Continue Reading »
May.12.2011
I have started a new online journal dedicated to nonfiction.  It's called "234" and housed at www.234journal.com.  My partners in crime for this endeavor are Tim Peeler and Jerry Sain.  We posted our first essay, "Dealing with Death" by Charles Aguilar, on May 5.  We followed...
Continue Reading »
May.12.2011
REVIEW by Scott Owens   MEMORY BONES by Sara Claytor Big Table, 2011, 32 pages, $12 ISBN:  9780984573356               Sara Claytor is simply a joy to read, although her poems are neither simple nor naively always joyful.  Rather, Claytor’s work consistently demonstrates that she knows what makes...
Continue Reading »
Nov.08.2010
Scott Owens Bibliography   Books Owens, Scott. The Persistence of Faith. Charlotte: Sandstone, 1994. Owens, Scott. Deceptively Like a Sound. Winston-Salem: Dead Mule, 2008. http://www.deadmule.com/poetry/2008/04/scott-owens-deceptively-like-a-sound-a-chapbook/ Owens, Scott. The...
Continue Reading »
Oct.26.2009
How Does Poetry Work?   Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, October 8, 2009   Any attempt at answering that question is doomed to be inadequate for the simple fact that what we call poetry varies greatly and works in an incomprehensible range of ways.  Nevertheless, as Robert Frost said, “...
Continue Reading »
Oct.26.2009
Why Poetry?   Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, August 20, 2009               It’s a question that every poet who has ever been interviewed has been asked and a question that I ask my own writing students every semester.  But it may really be two questions.  The reasons, after all, for reading...
Continue Reading »
Oct.26.2009
Top 10 Reasons to Go to a Poetry Reading   Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, November 13, 2008               In this age of universal literacy, poetry readings might seem a strange concept.  Why would one give up an evening of watching The Biggest Loser or Dancing with the Stars to listen to...
Continue Reading »
Oct.26.2009
HOW TO READ A POEM  Reprinted from "Musings,"Outlook, August 27, 2009             This one comes in direct response to a reader who wrote to me that he doesn’t read much poetry because it never makes any sense to him.  This is not the first time I’ve heard this complaint about poetry...
Continue Reading »