Here is my (mostly accurate) running life list of my published writing—print and online—in descending chronological order of the year of publication. Sadly, a number of these journals, magazines, and websites are no longer publishing—the fate of so much literary these takes of screen supremacy over words. Still, gratitude to all the venues who continue to put the word out there. Even when the odds (and finances) are against success…
My poem, “Monster: A Cento,” has been accepted for publication in Red Door Magazine in Spring 2026. This poem was written on the day the Oklahoma state legislature passed a law—at the time the most restrictive in the U.S.—banning abortion at conception. A cento is a poem that is made up of lines from the work of other poets. This one was created from the first lines of poems written by the (relatively few) women in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, edited by J. D. McClatchy.
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After several days of Pacific Northwest November weather last week—downpour, high wind, dramatic clouds—it was a relief to have a weekend of sun. As our Portland universe dried out the past two days, we were finally able to sweep up more of the bajillion fallen Douglas fir needles that had become a uniform carpet on the sidewalks, flagstones, patios, and driveway. This is addition to raking, raking, raking the maple leaves from the three giant trees in our backyard. We are very close to having all of the foliage shaken from every branch. The return of the rains on Monday may just do the trick…
This is a commonplace sight on the English Boom Trail on Camano Island on Camano Island. A place surrounded by the waters of Skagit Bay, Port Susan, and Sarasota Passage in Washington State. Water makings its determined way through marshes, rushes, fields, the surrounding land. Insistent, dominating, winning out in the end
My poem, “A Long Way Around” appears in the print issue of the American Writers Review 2025 anthology of poetry, stories, essays, art, and photograph from San Fedele Press. The theme for the anthology is “Buyers’ Remorse.” Here is what the anthology editor, D. Ferrara, has to say about the collection: “The work in this issue springs from the moment when the best-laid schemes have turned to dust. The crash can be obvious, subtle, or not yet realized. Some capture the instant of recognition and regret. Others speak to those who will never know what caused it, but who move forward blind to cause and effect.”
We joined the parade on Saturday afternoon in downtown Portland. The chickens and the turkey, the SpongeBob and Pokemon characters, the giraffes and cows and unicorns, the T-rexes and, of course, the frogs. All 40 or 50,000 of us with our homemade signs, with our bubble machines, drums, cowbells, streaming for miles, a crowd so dense we were able to fill two bridges cross the Willamette River and returning at the same time. Even if the front page of the New York Times continues to downplay these mass protest events
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The Autumn 2025 “Burn It Down” issue of TrashLight has hit the streets. My poem, “Rewind,” appears along with many other voices in its eighty-plus pages of art, fiction, and poetry. All of this creativity is a call to action, to rise up and rage against the would-be fascist machine that threatens our country 24/7 these days. TrashLight Editor-in-Chief Jill Spinelli has these words to add to the conversation: “This issue is built from the broken screams for justice, the need to be seen, and the feral desire to fight back…
Where there are free bouquets available for passersby on their way to and from Alberta Park. Where there are no fires that I can see, no conflagrations, no insurrectionists warring in the streets. Where the sun is out and it is a glorious autumn day iridescent with green, melodious with birdsong, peaceful and calm and serene. And since I know that the tyrants are lying and gaslighting about what is currently going on here—in the city where I live—makes a person wonder why one would ever take anything they utter at face value let alone assume it is telling the truth
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I took the above photograph at the No Kings Rally and March in downtown Portland, Oregon on June 14, 2025. It was one of my favorite signs at the march—after all, we are avid community gardeners! I had previously seen it at the April 5, 2025 Hands Off Rally but did not get a good photograph at the time. It sums up so much about this moment we find ourselves in. Luckily, IHRAM Press and its authors and artists are fighting back. I am one of those authors. As of today, October 1st, IHRAM Press is publishing America’s Slide Towards Authoritarianism, a folio of American and international writers and artists…
This past Monday marked the passage from summer into autumn—a day of balance between light and dark—even though most of these late September days are still cloudless and warm. Tomatoes continue to ripen on the vine. Assorted flowers are in riotous late-season bloom. In spite of the growing menace—and very real harms—flowing 24/7 from the unhinged actions of too many
My poem, “Rewind, or One More Reminder of Our Long and Ongoing History of Ochlocracy”, has been accepted for publication in the Fall 2025 “Burn It Down” Issue of TrashLight Press. This poem is included in my yet-unpublished chapbook, Postcards of the Hanging. Many of the poems in this manuscript—including this one—were informed by the newspaper articles and editorials collected in 100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginzburg, first published in 1962 and re-released by the Black Classic Press in 1988
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