There’s a bit of the Romantic in me, so I’ve always loved fog. For me, it conjures a sense of mystery (bordering on the supernatural), solitude (my favorite!), and introspection. Below is a poem from my first book, The Wind and the Shadows. On one level, it’s a poem about driving on a foggy day.ContinueContinue reading “Driving through the Fog”
Category Archives: Modern poetry
Spring Images
A few months ago, I mentioned I’m reading through James Wright’s Collected Poems. Peter Stitt (as quoted in The Poetry Foundation’s overview of Wright’s life) says Wright’s Collected Poems parallels the development of poetry in history: both trace the movement from rhyme, meter, and higher literary style to less structured, more conventional language. When IContinueContinue reading “Spring Images”
Visionaries
In my neck of the woods, we are staggering towards fall. High temps lurch between the upper 80s and mid 70s but the lows are in the 40s. A few leaves have already fallen. “Visionaries” is a poem I wrote in the early ‘90s. It isn’t in any of my self-published books, but it isContinueContinue reading “Visionaries”
Not a Car
Recently, I mentioned I started setting up my cat chapbook for publication. It is pretty much ready to go but I made the decision to delay its release. Why? Without thinking, I submitted one of my cat poems to a journal. When I started sending poems to journals, I learned quickly that most won’t publishContinueContinue reading “Not a Car”
County Fair
My wife proudly describes herself as “an instigator.” This means she drops an idea in earshot of a person or two, lets them carry it out, and disappears (especially if there are consequences involved 😆). Sometimes, my wife instigates poems, usually by saying, “I have a poem idea….” or “You should write a poem aboutContinueContinue reading “County Fair”
CATTACK!
Soon (sooner than I’d like 😉), we will be dropping our daughter, Kate, at Providence Christian College in Pasadena, CA. Kate LOVES cats, so I am posting a cat poem today in honor of her departure. It also seemed apropos to share a cat poem because I am going to start prepping my cat chapbookContinueContinue reading “CATTACK!”
Elements
When I was in college, I took a poetry class. Looking back, I learned so much in that class; my writing changed a lot afterward. That said, I was skeptical of many things at first. The professor’s philosophy about poetry differed from mine at the time. But as I tried the things I was hearing,ContinueContinue reading “Elements”
Psalm 1
Back in April, I mentioned I was working on a series of poems inspired by Mozart’s Requiem. My plan was not merely to rehash the Requiem’s text in a modern style but to interact with the text poetically. I hoped to write poems that reimagined the text through my personal lens while (hopefully) honoring theContinueContinue reading “Psalm 1”
Sleep
There are a fair number of things we do every day that we think little of. But when I step back and consider mundane things as if I were an outsider, I find life is full of strangeness. Now and then, I’ll look at one of my cats and say to my wife, “Isn’t itContinueContinue reading “Sleep”
Elegy in a Firelit Room
Nearly 20 years ago, I fell in love with a poem by Franz Wright called, “On the Death of a Cat.” I’ve shared it more than once with friends who have lost pets because of its affectionate vulnerability. Last fall, while meandering about the Poetry Foundation’s website, I became intrigued by a poet named JamesContinueContinue reading “Elegy in a Firelit Room”
A Wandering Minstrel 