Chase Twichell

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Chase Twichell. Corey Marks.
Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet.
J. D. McClatchy. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).
Jack Gilbert. Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua. Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Les Murray. Louise Glück. Len Anderson. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A).
Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sara Teasdale. Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

Chase Twichell featured in Best American Poetry:

2010 with "The Dark Rides" (guest editor Amy Gerstler).

Books: The Practice of Poetry.
Poetry. Editing. Time line. Links and Books.

Notes from 17th January 2000 Poetry of Chase Twichell in San Jose, CA, USA

Some quotations:

I would choose poetry because it's my responsibility.

I feel responsible for telling things in the particular way I tell them.

I'll close with three poems that are part of a series sprinkled throughout the book that explores the possibility of how the poet (like Keats, Whitman) can be intimate with the reader.

Twichell reading from The Snow Watcher:

'Girl Riding Bareback'
'Hologram'
'Horse' [She wanted us to laugh and suggested that we were taking her too seriously.]
'Decade' [Someone laughed and she said: "I'm glad to hear someone laugh; I think some of these are quite funny."]
'Hunger for Something' [which she prefaced with "I think I better read another funny one."]
'My Skeleton'
'My Taste for Trash'
'Zazen Wired and Tired'
'Today's Lapses'
'Silver and White Elegy'
'To the Reader: Polaroids'
'To the Reader: If you Asked Me'
'To the Reader: Twilight'

Poetry of Chase Twichell.

The Ghost of Eden (1995)

Her fourth collection of verse.
Twenty-eight poems (given sequential Roman numerals) presented in a single untitled section.

The Snow Watcher (2006)

Her fifth collection of verse.
Presented in seven untitled sections.
Sample statistics:
- 77 poems, 82 pages, average of 1.1 pages per poem.
- For pages per poem, the mode is 1 pages (72 poems); 5 poems are 2 pages.
- For lines per poem, most of the poems are in multiples of 5 lines, with 15 lines as the most common length:
  
  5 5
  
  8 1
  
  9 1
  
  10 18
  
  12 1
  
  13 1
  
  15 37
  
  17 1
  
  20 7
  
  25 3
  
  30 2
- Lines per stanza (rough count) shows a mode of 3 lines, followed by 2 lines, then 5 lines. These are the only significant stanza lengths.
- Stanzas per poem (rough count) shows a bimodal peak at 7 and 13 stanzas, and a preference for an odd number of stanzas:
  1. 7 poems have a single stanza each.
  2. 7 poems have 2 stanzas.
  3. 7
  4. 29
  5. 15
  6. 38
  7. 0
  8. 3
  9. 0
  10. 1
  11. 0
  12. 2