Richard White's Poetry

NaPoWriMo Day 29 – After the Sirens, After the Years

When the Sirens Fade and Silence Speaks The clock turns, but it never truly resets. It only folds time—past into present, memory into breath. Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt draws inspiration from Jennifer Moxley and her poem After Turning the Clocks Back, where the present moment is …

NaPoWriMo Day 26: Ars Poetica — Writing from the Fracture

There’s a long-standing tradition in poetry—dating back to Horace—called ars poetica, or “the art of poetry.” It asks a simple but loaded question: why do we write? For some, poetry is beauty. For others, it’s truth. For me, it’s survival. Today’s poem doesn’t soften that …

🌸 NaPoWriMo Day 19 — A Florilegium of Meaning & Memory

Five petals open like a hand—
the iris speaks in silence,
a messenger of hope rooted in grief,
blooming between worlds.

NaPoWriMo Day 18 — Aria for the Boy I Buried

Some poetry demans a stage, the actor’s exiting and reappearing to shed light upon the story, Once more with feeling as Buffy the Vampire would say. Today’s NaPoWriMo challenge pulled inspiration from dramatic, rhymed narrative poems like The Best Loved Poems of the American People, …

When a Review Becomes a Fireside Conversation 🍂🥃

Some books ask to be finished. Others ask to be savored. Whiskey and the Autumn Wind belongs to the latter—a collection meant for slow evenings, low light, and a glass poured with intention. When a reader described the poems as something to be “sipped like a fine bourbon by a crackling fireplace,” they captured the spirit of the book perfectly. This is poetry that lingers, that speaks softly, and that stays with you long after the final page.