I have taken many trains across these United States. Many of them have romantic-sounding names—the Coast Starlight, the Empire Builder, the Capitol Limited, the California Zephyr, and the Texas Eagle are the names of a few
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Writing in Form: A Narrative Poem in Syllabics
My narrative poem in syllabics, “Old, New, Broken, Blue,” was published in the Traditional Form issue of Blast Furnace, Volume 2, No. 2 in Spring of 2012. The pattern is this: Each stanza has lines bearing five syllables followed by a final line of two beats…
The Individuality of a Poetry Signature
Is it, perhaps, the most famous cursive signature in American history? And, now that I think about it—and given all the other handwritten flourishes that graces the documents created by the so-called founding fathers—why was John Hancock the one who had his moniker celebrated above and beyond all the rest? The history books offer something of an explanation but who knows if it is even true
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Published Online after Being in Print: “And I will tell you a story”
The opening poem in my poetry collection, Every Door Recklessly Ajar—“And I Will Tell You a Story”—was recently re-published online in Fall 2024 at Poemeleon: A Literary Journal. It previously appeared in print in the journal, Gold Man Review, out of Salem Oregon.
Oregon Poetry Association Honorable Mention for a Prose Poem
My yet-unpublished prose poem, “Thresholds of More Oblivious Blossoming,” has received the First Honorable Mention in the Form/Prose Poem Category of the Oregon Poetry Association’s Fall 2024 Contest. The category judge, Rana Tahir, wrote…
Playing with Form: The Abecedarian
In Summer 2018, riverbabble published my poem, “First Line of Defense: A Cento.” Not only does this poem use the cento form, stitching together lines borrowed from other poets into a poem all its own, but it is also an (almost) abecedarian. An abecedarian is a poem in which the first letter of each line or stanza follows sequentially through the alphabet…
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Publication News: “Remembering Gravity”
Here is another one of my old chestnuts I Publication News: “Remembering Gravity”
Here is another one of my old chestnuts, as I call them—ditties I wrote when I was just taking up the pen and paper again almost twenty years ago and trying to re-learn what makes a good poem. Looking at these oldies but goodies again now, in 2024, I can see I would write them very differently now!
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When the art monster turns out to be someone beloved…
Sometimes the secrets we keep in life we are able to quietly take to the grave. Other times there are secrets—perhaps buried, elided, squelched, ignored, dismissed, and discounted for decades—bubble back up to the surface, break through, causing a seismic wave especially when the secret-keeper is both beloved and well-known
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A Group Poem at Tupelo Press
Several years back, the good folks at Tupleo Press came up with the idea for The Million-Line Poem. Poets would submit two lines—a couplet—and the world would see what a collaborative poetic effort could and would became. My two lines were from a poem I wrote long ago about The Combat Paper Project, which per Wikipedia, was“formed to help veterans cope with experiences in the war…
Publication News: Margie, the Journal of American Poetry
My poem, “The Weight of Too Much,” was published in Margie: The American Journal of Poetry in Fall 2006—one of my first poetry publication successes! Margie is an annual literary journal based in Chesterfield, Missouri that features the work of the nation’s leading poets. It journal was established in 2000; it is named after and dedicated to the memory of Marjorie J. Wilson (1955-1977). …
