Thoughts…
Why “A Consecration of the Wind”?
Wind represents change, and the consecration of wind elevates that transformation to a spiritual level. Many of my poems reflect a desire to change, to leave parts of myself behind, to become someone else. That denial of self had its origins in childhood, thanks in...
2020…2021…2022 Woes
Seventeen days after the first U.S. state went into lockdown, I was suffering from extreme anxiety, and I experienced my first ever five-hour episode of atrial fibrillation and tachycardia. I hadn’t left my house in 20 days, but I was sure I was going to die as a...
Why Fragmented Roots?
Why not Bleeding Letters and Fragmented Roots? I based the title of my second book of poetry on a line from the poem, “The Uncoupling,” but the concept of fragmented roots permeates the other poems in the book. First, here’s the poem itself: The Uncoupling As I lie or...
Social Media Tricks are for Kids
How many of you are old enough to remember the original General Mills 1959 commercial that launched their still-used slogan, “Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids”? Well, I feel like a silly, very old rabbit now, confined to my office, trying to navigate the various social...
Poems about Death, Grief, and Loss
Living with the Coronavirus Curve In an era of the curve, a measurement for the overwhelming number of deaths caused by a rogue virus, it seems appropriate to discuss why poets write about death, grief, and loss, and why readers are drawn to these themes. We all know...
The Dust That the Poet Exposes
Images of dust appear throughout my poems, and I often wonder why it is a symbol I love to repurpose in each poem. Then, my brain comes to life, and I realize that T.S. Eliot, my favorite poet, wrote my favorite line of poetry: “I will show you fear in a handful of...
Glass That Melts
As I compare my debut collection of poetry, A Consecration of the Wind, to the manuscript for my second book Fragmented Roots, I realize that I have included images of glass and mirrors throughout my poems, which span five decades. In both collections, the glass...
