Michael Miller

Author of The Joyful Dark (Ashland Poetry Press)

Read the review here.

As a boy, books were the freshest air I breathed; Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, The Call of the Wild, and today I look forward to the novels of J.M. Coetzee, the stories of William Trevor, and the poems of Richard Wilbur, and whatever biography or memoir my instincts draw me to. Books, I've learned , can open the doors of imagination and lead me into my own work -- for me, reading is the twin of writing.

I have never found that writing from my own experience, writing about what I know, has served me as well as writing from the springs of imagination. My suggestion to anyone who wants to write is to be a reader first -- read for pleasure, for escape, for knowledge, and gradually, through a process I will call literary osmosis, you will learn how to write. Then find a friend, seek out a teacher, someone who knows more about writing than you do and show them your work and ask for their advice. And always continue to write, to read, in whatever time or place your life allows. The great poet Rilke said, "Patience is everything!" In time, your work will improve and be ready to submit to magazines and journals; rejections lead to acceptances, acceptances lead to books, books lead to relationships with editors whose suggestions can enhance your work.

Some of the poems in The Joyful Dark date back to l965 and others were written recently. Some came quickly, in three or four drafts, others needed years of revision, but it was the process of writing that I found fulfilling.