Diane Lockward

while teaching in the University of Arkansas’ Writers in the Schools program as a graduate student working on my MFA

I’m never happier than with a full page of scattered words in front of me.

While every draft produced from a word bank might not make it to publication, this process has a strong track record of stimulating new poems.

Is there anything harder for a parent to witness than a child’s pain? That’s the topic DiGiorgio tackles in this poem.

The poem then ends with a powerful metaphor: the child is a dark splinter in white sheets.

For your own poem, think of someone whose difficult situation you witnessed. T

waiting on antidote, prick

of the merciful needle

Craft Tip #2: Know More

My first two books of poetry were heavily informed by research.

The first, Sightseer, tells the history of the places I’d visited on my travels.