Neal Miller's Poetry Archive

Well, I wrote a lot of poetry when I was in college, some good, some bad.  I haven't written much in the last few years, but I thought that this web site would be a great place to publish some of my catalog (a sort of catharsis).  I have had my doubts about the internet, and while some of my skepticism has faded over the years, I still feel the electronic media is not the ideal one for displaying poetry.  Unlike longer prose writings, good poems require an incredible precision of language, and reading poems demands a great deal of the audience.  Words that appear on a video display lack a certain permanence and solemnity that paper and ink poetry has traditionally invoked.  For this reason, I encourage you to print my poems out to read them.  They are imperfect, but still demand more scrutiny than a cursory glance at the computer screen allows.  However, if you wish to reprint or republish any of the poems, contact me for permission.  Some of these poems have appeared previously in the Reed College Small Press Collective.  Many were written as class assignments for the poetry workshops I took.  The list will hopefully expand as time permits me to revise and dig up the gems of my past.  For now, I have chosen to keep the poem pages plain and simple, so that the focus remains on the words not the medium.  At any rate, all feedback is welcome.  Enjoy!