I’ve been experimenting with taking photos and writing haikus or prose pieces to accompany them. Here are a few examples.
Poems
Poetry helps me find “the place beyond words.” We poets use words to point ourself and others toward those ineffable places. When this water of 'being' is running through me, I write for the joy of participating and the hope of learning something new. If my words then touch others I am rewarded a second time.
Poems in the World, Readings, Teaching
It’s been a minute since I’ve written. But I’m here to share some links to poems and other work and opportunities.
Poetry:
First, a poem out very recently in MER Folio. Spells and Prayers Before Antimatter. Lots of great writing here too.
And in the recent journal Naugatuck River Review, my poem, Blood of the Peony Bed, was a finalist in their narrative poetry contest. Please buy the journal as it’s quite wonderful too.
I have a few more poems coming out soon that I’ll link as they arrive.
Teaching:
I’m teaching 4 workshops in collaboration with a visual artist, Carol Rashawnna Williams, for kids living with an autoimmune disease and their caregivers. Autoimmune diseases include but are not limited to: Juvenile Arthritis, Juvenile Myositis, Crohn’s, diabetes Type 1, Lupus, IBD, etc. The first one is coming up Saturday, March 18th at SandPoint Learning Center (affiliated with Seattle Children’s Hospital) and more to follow in May and June. I made a little video about the workshops too. See it here and please register . It is called The Kaleidoscope of Autoimmune Disease workshop.
Reading:
I’ll be reading poems in support of Donna Spruijt-Metz’s new book, General Release from the Beginning of the World, along with Heidi Seaborn, on Monday, March 20th at Elliott Bay Bookstore starting at 7 pm.
Book Reviews–Since the House Is Burning
A book review is a gift from the reviewer to the reader and writer. It is a conversation in which the writer is allowed into someone else’s perceptions of their words and it is a way for potential readers to learn about a book they might want to read. It is also a labor of kindness since very few reviewers get paid for their work.
I am grateful to both Claudia Putnam whose review of my book appears in MER online (aka Mom Egg Review) and to Risa Deneberg for her words in River Mouth Review.
Ekphrastic Review poem
The Ekphrastic Review publishes a weekly visual prompt as a way to elicit literary responses. Thank you to them for publishing mine along with many others. It is in response to Rubens The Massacre of the Innocents.
Innocence Aftermath
Nothing new here.
Hasn’t it always been so,
this othering? Desire
to rid ourselves from threat
to the kingdom of self.
Murderers might be armored
with righteous fervor
or crowned with orders to obey.
Perhaps untethered voices
scramble one’s mind and a rapacious
quest to still them. Some baked-in-trait,
trick or taint in our genes
commandeers our heads. Centuries
of bloodshed. Blood as dictator
and treasure. More valued
than gold. Yet, it’s the naked
violence against children,
slaughter of the defenseless
we seem unable to quell. We are sick.
Of it all. Aren’t we?
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