My First Poem

2nd Grade

Image shows the original gibberish scrawled on an old campaign brochure of my mother’s. Here’s the translation:

As I watch the clouds go by,
they seem to make shapes in the sky.

This is what I saw, a dragon, a puppy
and a president, but I don’t know what one.

I still have my head in the clouds, and I still have atrocious penmanship. Oh those morphing clouds. I must have read a Peanuts cartoon that day. Carter would have been president, but I probably thought I saw one of the founding fathers.

My Book

Cover - A Man's World

Purchase a print version of A Man’s World: Poems by Sean Ward – only $8.99 plus shipping and handling.

Here are some things that have been said about the book.

Sean Ward’s poems are dense with closely observed details, whether they occur in nature or the guts of an engine, in the human psyche or the intricacies of cat behavior. From a very male perspective, Ward delights in precise terminologies, in the physicality of labor, in the fantasy life that so often underpins the mundane, as when tearing down a shed becomes the act of a Viking berserker, or the assembly of a lawnmower becomes a Zen meditation. Ward’s appreciation of craftsmanship reminds one of Eric Gill, his lanky rhythms of Whitman. — Bryce Milligan author, critic, publisher

This is very good work, especially that opening poem about mechanics. It has depth, wit and stands as experientially convincing. The political and social critiques are also sharp. You have a firm understanding of form and content in poetry. You push the edge pretty far but never overstate, maintaining a good balance and proportion in each poem. — Robert Bonazzi, Author, Editor

If you’re interested in writing poetry, I encourage you to take workshops and practice. The finest book on the craft is Writing Poems (7th Edition).

Writing Poems

Writing Poems (7th Edition)

• Sixty new poems–many by younger contemporary poets, representing a wide range of ages, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, and aesthetic approaches–will encourage you explore various poetic strategies in your own writing.
• Chapter selections now include classical and contemporary poems from across the globe, reflecting the interconnectedness of our global society.
• Recognizing that no one is immune to writer’s block, the authors have provided new, more powerful exercises in the ”Questions and Suggestions” sections to get your creative juices flowing and inspire you to commit words to paper.

Quotes on Poetry

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these. ~T.S. Eliot

He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. ~George Sand

Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. ~Marianne Moore