It’s easy to find clarity and insight, to conjure up the best advice for oneself when looking back in time, isn’t it? What was once a mass of confusion, a morass of to-do lists and frenzied scramblings that seemed to be going nowhere…
Memory Lane Chapbook News: Eternity a Coal’s Throw
My chapbook, Eternity a Coal’s Throw, was published by Burning River Press of Cleveland, Ohio in 2012. Chris Bowen, the editor, had a very interesting process for making his chapbooks stand out from the crowd. Each one included an introductory essay that talked about a bit about the “how” and the “why” that led to the writing of that particular group of poems. In my case, this collection was all about the place I grew up, the anthracite coal country of northeastern Pennsylvania…..
From the Finger Lakes: A Poetry Anthology
“The Finger Lakes Region of New York is easy to find on a map. But is there something intangible here, a spirit that can touch the human heart? This anthology of poems from more than 100 authors includes the well established and those just commencing the poetic craft. You will find a wide variety of voices…
Memory Lane Publication News: Great Hunger
Anchor & Plume Press of Baton Rouge, Louisiana published my long poem, Great Hunger, as their first-ever “pocket book” on St. Patrick’s Day 2016. As part of the volume’s launch, I answered a few questions for Anchor & Plume editor, Amanda Mays. Below is an excerpt of our conversation….
The Running List…
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 website 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…
Found Poetry: Sappho in Translation
Found poetry takes words, phrases, and sometimes even entire passages from other sources and recasts them into what I like to think of as the literary equivalent of a collage. My found poem, “So now this autumn,” is made up of lines taken from If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, translated by…
Publication News: The Disobedience Issue of Poemeleon
In Summer 2015, my poem, “Faced with a Towering Stack of Rubbermaid Bins, the Lifelong Incunabulist Contemplates (Yet Again) How Best to Deal with Four Decades of Notebooks that Require Destruction before the (Inevitable) End” was published in the Disobedient issue of Poemeleon…
Book Report: American Prometheus
I am cranking my way through this outstanding biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. I have long been fascinated by Oppenheimer perhaps since I saw the footage in which he ominously…
Custodians of the Garlic
We have become custodians of a wonderful variety of hard neck garlic called Ellensburg Blue. It was back around 2018 when we first ordered some from Irish Eyes, a family farm outside Ellensburg, Washington. I remember we tried it alongside their Inchelium Red variety and there was no comparison…
Hitting the Honorable Mention Jackpot
In the Spring 2023 Oregon Poetry Association poetry contests, I got three honorable mentions for some of my newer poems. Now to find publication homes for them! Here’s the skinny: Honorable Mention for “Of the Wild Bees Living in a Tree in the Alley” in the Wildlife Themed Category…
