mrteague

Denial

This week’s poem, “Denial”, will be in my upcoming book The Anonymity of Waiting. I don’t want to say much about it because I’m curious to see what readers think it’s about. In some degree, poetry is always about balancing transparency with ambiguity. Poems fall all along this continuum, with some being explicit and othersContinueContinue reading “Denial”

Useless

This week, I started working on a new luc bat poem. Luc bat is a Vietnamese form of poetry I learned about a few years ago. Since I’ve got luc bat on the brain, I decided to post a luc bat poem from my second book, Event Horizon, entitled “Useless.” UselessI’m glad some people careforContinueContinue reading “Useless”

Happy Birthday, USA

On July 4th, 1776, the second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. This document announced our independence from England and marked the birth of The United States of America. Since Americans celebrated the birth of our country on Thursday last week, I thought I’d share a poem I wrote about July 4thContinueContinue reading “Happy Birthday, USA”

Long in the Tooth

Almost every day, my kids tell me I’m old, gray, or decrepit. My son is fond of saying I have dementia if I have the slightest memory lapse, while my daughter comments on my “old man hobbies” because I use a birding app. Aging is real and unavoidable. Below is a somewhat whimsical reflection onContinueContinue reading “Long in the Tooth”

Ron

My day job is in social services. Through my job, I get to know people in all kinds of situations. Most of them have health problems and need caregivers. Some are financially well off, some are supported and insured by the state. I work with people who have mental health issues, substance use issues, and…justContinueContinue reading “Ron”

Fatherhood

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there! This year, I received the gift of poetry. My wife has been known to write a poem when the mood takes her, and she wrote me a lovely haiku for Father’s Day ❤️ Haiku is a favorite form of mine, and in this sparse space, myContinueContinue reading “Fatherhood”

Empty Hands

Change is something we all live with. It’s inevitable, and we react to it in our own ways. If I’m honest, my reaction is often grief, or, at the very least, reflection. The longer I live, the more change I go through. For me, that means a lot of grief or reflection, even over thingsContinueContinue reading “Empty Hands”

Unpaired Words

Every poet (probably every writer) is, on some level, a word nerd, a grammar geek. True to form, I have been learning about unpaired words. These are words whose root form has fallen out of use and only survive in our language as words paired with a suffix or prefix. For instance, we might sayContinueContinue reading “Unpaired Words”

in Just

When I mentioned “the goat-footed balloon man”, my daughter gave me a quizzical look and said, “Whaaat?” Something she said made me think of him, though I can’t remember what it was now. To explain, I looked up E.E. Cummings’s poem [in Just] and read it aloud. The childish innocence of this poem always makesContinueContinue reading “in Just”

Stars

My son, who has a budding interest in astrophysics, has been learning about black holes and stars. The other day he relayed what he had found out about the black hole in our own galaxy, superstars, and theories about the origins of the largest black hole discovered (to date). I won’t say I carried myContinueContinue reading “Stars”