I write what refuses silence
· On Writing
There is a line in my original draft that I was certain was the best line I'd ever written. It was doing four things at once. It was also completely wrong for the poem.
Paired Poem
Albatross
· Life & Writing
I was in a coffee shop when my phone showed the first sale notification. I ordered a second coffee I didn't need and sat there for forty-five minutes doing nothing in particular except feeling things.
Paired Poem
Unveiled
· Journal
A quiet September at home — the kind of stillness that asks the questions you've been too busy to hear. Real life at a human scale, an ordinary afternoon with Rose, and the slower work of getting things right.
Paired Poem
Apology
· Journal
First trip to Maine with my sister, to visit Tish and Dave — people we'd known a matter of hours before saying yes. A risk that became one of the best decisions I've made and an introduction to the Land Ladies, who welcomed me in despite the gender policy. Unanimous vote, apparently.
Paired Poem
Jars of Dawn
· Travel Journal
Maine in August 2024 was slower and softer than the rest of that year’s travel: Bangor flights, my sister, friends, lobster, porches, and the kind of coastal ease that reset my thinking.
Paired Poem
A World of Whimsy
· Journal
After Peru and Book 2, July was the long exhale — home in Santa Fe for monsoon season, watching the storms come in, and letting the land do its thing while I recovered from finishing something.
Paired Poem
The Joy to Live
· Life & Place
I spent a Saturday in June at a gallery in Santa Fe watching people look at paintings. Not the paintings themselves — the people looking at them.
Paired Poem
Brushstrokes of Emotions
· Travel Journal
The Peru return was its own entry because coming home from that landscape had weight: Cusco to Lima to Atlanta to Albuquerque, Book 2 finished, and the difficulty of fitting ordinary scale back around Andean memory.
Paired Poem
The Measure of Time
· On Writing
Here is something I don't often talk about: the image for a poem usually comes before the poem is finished. Not always, but often.
Paired Poem
My Love Had a Name