Creative Writing
“All of Us,” a 74-line poem about becoming a couple after the first wife dies, won an Honorable Mention in the Oregon Poetry’s Association Spring 2015 contest. Watershed Review “Dating a Dutch Scientist” and “Gold in the Mouth” in its December 2014 issue. Several of these poems appear in Saturday Afternoons, published March 2009. My photograph, “Laundry, San Felipe,” shot in Mexico’s Yucatan, is on the book’s cover. The Harney County poems come from my spring stint as the 2009 Eastern Oregon Writer-in-Residence.
Seven Ways of Looking at a Dogwood
A nod to Wallace Stevens, a bow to Basho
Dogwoods turn fecund,
succumb one to another.
Black boughs birthing blooms.
Onward Christian trees.
Eastertime’s righteous branches
blister with crosses. Read More
Harney County, First Day
I sail the sagebrush sea, green scent drifting,
and just as you tell me, scan the land
for elk and antelope, big-horned sheep,
jack rabbits, those suicidal pests, like Jessie said. Read More
Floribunda
The azaleas bloomed in February,
or was it March?
That sultry fading winter when
aromas rushed like blood
into fresh spring. Read More
San Juan Angels
Treading air over pastel cathedrals,
they rise, warm crema in caffe,
so sweet,
shot of rum on the rocks. Read More
Blood Orange
I’m the best
of the lot of
you oranges
because I’m
red: Read More