This ekphrastic, free-verse poem was inspired by Dianne Kornberg’s photographs of kelp from the University of Washington’s marine algae Herbarium in her exhibit “evidence of its occurrence” at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon, 2005…
Acceptance News: Poemeleon’s “Happy Poems” Issue
True confession right off the bat: I have not written very many happy poems. But I really like the literary journal, Poemeleon, and when the call came for their upcoming issue with a theme of “Happy Poems” well I searched the archives and dug a few out. Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry was founded by Cati Porter in December of 2005
…
Publication News: Poeming Pigeon: In the News
After the shock of the November 2016 presidential election in the United States, things got very real very fast. The following year it often felt like the rat-a-tat of explosions perhaps even rapid gunfire—the cruel and verging-on-fascists nonsense that the administration started to spew. It was hard not to have the edginess of politics creep into the writing of poems
…
Inventing a New Poetic Form: The Quiversen
Qarrtsiluni published my poem, “The Winter I Went to Two Al-Anon Meetings, Realized I Didn’t Have What It Took to Love Your Version of Alcoholic” in their Imprisonment issue back in June 2011.
…
Publication News: “Bringing in the Seeds”
In August 2012, the “Women Writing Nature” issue of Sugar Mule published not one but four! of my poems: “Bringing in the Seeds”; “Keep Napa Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Free!”; “On the Rare Occasion of an Ice Storm in the Coast Range”; and my prose poem, “Empty Nest.” They made a PDF of this triple issue so you can download then read them all as well as the work by all the other amazing women who contributed…
Publication News: Curio Poetry
Sometimes you hit the poetry acceptance jackpot. Curio Poetry took not one but three of my poems for publication in their second issue in January 2012: “Voyeur”; “Fifteen-Minute Family”; and “The Time of Small Despair.” And while these poems seems to be about different subjects…
Say/Mean…Shaking the Pumpkin
Years ago, in a poetry class at the Attic Writers’ Workshop here in Portland, our teacher, Paulann Petersen, turned us on to a really cool book edited by Jerome Rothenberg, Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North America
…
Playing with Form: Erasure vs. Found Poetry
Several years ago, during the nadir of our accidentally-elected political clown show and just before the pandemic, I found I only wanted to read history and biography. I was trying to understand how we got ourselves in the mess we were clearly in
…
Publication News: Napalm Health Spa
My poem, “Tong-len Forgotten” was published once upon a time, long long ago, in the June online issue of Napalm Health Spa: Report 2007. According to The Buddhist Dictionary, tong-len is “a practice in Tibetan Buddhism of meditatively ‘sending’ (btang) one’s good fortune and happiness out to others and ‘receiving’ (len) any misfortune and negativity others may be experiencing.” We were on a trip to the lovely Québec City when I bore witness to the scene that later found its way into this poem…
Playing with Form: Persona Poetry
My persona poem, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chews Out Her Daughter, Margaret, Who Has Decided Not to Follow in Her Mother’s Footsteps,” was published in the all-women contributors issue of the Medulla Review back in 2012
…
