Kendall Dunkelberg

Judging Haiku

This summer, I had the pleasure to judge a haiku contest for the Iowa Poetry Association. I’ve judged their general adult category before, so I knew this would be interesting, and I reminded myself that 100 or so haiku only meant reading 1700 syllables! So I dove right in. Of course, it was a littleContinue reading “Judging Haiku”

New Puppy

We are hosting our third foster dog from the humane society. He’s on a program called Homeward Bound that takes pets from the South, where not enough people spay and neuter, to the Northeast, where there is a shortage of pets to adopt. It’s a great program that saves a lot of lives, but theirContinue reading “New Puppy”

Exercise

This is just a quick follow-up post to yesterday’s and a note on the joys and dangers of writing exercises. This morning I wrote a poem titled Continental Divide based loosely on the exercise I described. When checking out the fact that Minnesota’s divide goes in three directions, I found the roadside marker that IContinue reading “Exercise”

Continental Divide

We were reminded of the meaning of the term “Continental Divide” a couple of times this summer when we crossed it in places you might not expect. Traveling east towards Duluth from the Mississippi Headwaters, we crossed it when we left the Mississippi River basin and entered the Great Lakes basin. We tend to thinkContinue reading “Continental Divide”

The Father of Waters or What I did on my Summer Vacation

One of the places we visited this summer was the Mississippi River. It’s hard to call this a ‘place,’ though, since we crossed and recrossed it all summer long, starting with our first trip down to Natchez to the Great Big Yam Potatoes old time music festival in May. There we walked along the bluffsContinue reading “The Father of Waters or What I did on my Summer Vacation”

Taking the plunge

For awhile, I’ve been saying I should start a blog to have a more personal presence on the web. So here goes… I plan to use this as a place to write about my life and record ideas. Subjects that might appear are poetry, translation, writing, violin and fiddle music, teaching, parenting, nature, living inContinue reading “Taking the plunge”