Tomorrow would have been my father’s 88th birthday. The following is something he wrote in September 1998, apparently for one of the classes he was taking to get his massage therapist license. (Though he never did massage as anything other than a side gig—he was an attorney—he continued to take courses on subjects related to [...]
(6 January 2018)
Last night, I was the featured poet at Everett Poetry Night for the first time. This slot had been scheduled months ago, but recent developments (mostly related to the misbehavior of my car, and my lack of funds to get the needed repairs right away) had me wondering whether or not I would be able [...]
Today’s entry in the Love Notes to the Days of the Week series is no. 359—which means it is almost time to start preparing the ‘Dear Thursday…’ volume for publication, as this coming Thursday will be the last entry for Year Four. I expect to have everything put together and ready to go before the end of [...]
Well, I don’t have much excuse this time—I had plenty of time to think it over—but I have not yet settled on my writing challenge for October. One thought that occurred to me was to try writing without articles, but then, after completing a poem this last week that I had originally started in early [...]
As I sometimes do, I was writing poems while waiting for tonight’s open mic to start. After one or two ‘ regular’ poems, I thought I would do something different: I filled a whole page of my ginormous sketchbook/journal with a single poem. But here’s how I did it: I wrote alternate lines from the top [...]
A lot of folks know that, because of the way I go about the practice of writing poetry, I rarely submit work to literary journals. Today, after receiving email from a list I am subscribed to, I was reading a submissions FAQ when I came upon the following: We like seeing that numerous poems in the [...]
After nearly two years of daily writing, I am allowing myself a break from routine this month. At the start of 2015, I resolved to write and post at least one new poem every day. I did miss some days here and there, but otherwise was faithful to that goal. Even if I didn’t like [...]
Written while watching the On the Edge symposium on YouTube… 1 A body of work emerges slowly— too slowly, it feels as though the body is sloughing off skin the flakes landing in random patterns on floor and fabric as I scratch them from my forehead All the candles in my house have been exhausted [...]
An ekphrastic poem, inspired by a diary page posted by Ksenia Anske. I don’t recognize the writing on some pages, I don’t see it at all (tip: never use fluorescent yellow highlighters to write in journals) I know that I was bored or angry wanting to be anywhere else wanting to pretend it never happened [...]
Ordinary Average Thoughts 