Poetry

Poems are, for many reasons, my favorite form. If the truism of the more personal the more universal is accurate, then poetry is the most universal form of art. I used to envy the direct emotional hit of painting or music and long thought that writing was the lesser cousin because one actually needed to know how to read, not to mention the language and the vocabulary. But music and visual art have become so complicated and technical over time that I now think that writing, and poetry in particular, is equal and perhaps even more emotionally available.

There is music in the formation of the sounds on the page and the meaning is typically accessible and sometimes obvious.  No need to see a painting and puzzle the metaphor, or to listen to music for that emotional high but then tease out the meaning to understand it.

I like that poems can be spontaneous and invoke that breathless excitement of something new. Or long-simmering with dense structure highly flavored words. I love the intentionality.

And love is, after all, the operating principle of the universe.

Here are a few from Small Red Pearls.

Honors

While I don't often share my poetry, I have been honored to have been a poet-in-residence at Salmon Publishing. This now-defunct house was Ireland's premier publisher of poetry for many years. I traveled to Knockeven, Ireland, near the Cliffs of Moher, and lived at the publisher's house for a month. Nothing to do but write and walk around that beautiful countryside.

I've also been an invited reader to San Luis Obispo's poetry festival, as well Bottled Poetry's readings at the Gloria Ferrer winery in Sonoma, California and other, smaller venues. It is always a pleasure to see whenever a poem connects to its listener.

Some published works include: