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POEM & INTERVIEW
The Steps
(w/recorded reading)
I am deeply grateful, proud, and gung-ho AF to share the news that my autobiographical poem "The Steps" has been published—along with a thoughtful Q&A and an audio recording of me reading the poem—as I am ((blush)) the latest honoree of the longstanding weekly feature presented by Brooklyn Poets: Poet of the Week.
"The Steps" is my story, but my hope is that through this emotionally raw, vivid, and vulnerable poem, the messages weaved within will resonate with anyone who has struggled to reach some version of acceptance and/or forgiveness while bearing agonizing witness to a parent who is at once wholly loving and wholly entrenched in a toxic relationship with alcohol. So toxic that it ((sigh)) proves tragically impossible for them to face and move beyond their addiction in this earthly life.
As for the interview, the questions are rich and dynamic, and offer quite the inside scoop into my path, values, and visions as a poet/artist/truthseeker/fellow pooping earth creature spinning into infinity. On top of all that, my picto-poems make some fresh cameos in the Q&A mix!
It's all so moving, and a true honor to have my work and expression housed with Brooklyn Poets, especially at the calendar close to a phenomenal debut season of teaching as a member of their faculty.
TWO POEMS
and Life Support
I'm honored to have two works published as "companion poems" in the spring 2022 print issue of Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities. I'm also grateful that this beautiful journal will now be the hand-held home to these deeply personal poems, written in honor of my late father and mother, respectively.
POEM
Thrilled to have one of my poems housed in this beautiful 15th anniversary edition of The Red Wheelbarrow literary journal, which is published annually out of William Carlos Williams' hometown of Rutherford, NJ. To learn more about the noble publishing org and to order a copy of the journal, visit The Red Wheelbarrow Poets.
HAIKU
PHOTOBOOK REMEDIATION
Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman
This photobook is an inspired remediation of the classic Walt Whitman poem "Song Of The Open Road," which first appeared in the 1865 edition of "Leaves of Grass." I composed this eBook in June of 2011 while pursuing my B.A. in Creative Writing at Florida State University, as the final project to a fantastic course entitled "Rhetoric and Composition in the Digital Age."
HUMOR ESSAY
I composed this "critical" essay in 2012 while pursuing my B.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University. The essay won first place in the nonfiction category of The Kudzu Review's annual writing contest, and was published in their Spring 2013 issue. The Kudzu Review is FSU's stellar undergraduate journal of literature & art.
EPISTOLARY ESSAY/MEMOIR PIECE
This essay holds a special place in my wordsmithing heart. Composed on the wings of taking a nonfiction writing workshop led by one of my personal heroines of page & pen—brilliant author, essayist, and journalist Meghan Daum—it's at once a personal essay and a love letter to my fifth grade teacher-turned-beloved-guru.
POEM (print & video)
(MY EARLIEST) POEM*
*Composed at age ten, when, for the record I lived near a forest and had lots of friends and a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine and I do not recall looking at birds.
CRITICAL ESSAY
The Poetics of Trust: An Examination of the Nature and Significance of Trust in a Poem's Speaker
This is the big-time long-form scholarly scholarly essay I composed as a key requirement for the completion of MFA in Poetry in January 2021. And yes I wrote in my pajamas while sipping an oaky red and cursed critical essay writing the whole time and I deeply believe in its central theme and think you just might too so come on grab your bevie of choice and give it a readerly shot!
TRIBUTE POETRY RECITATION (voice/bass duo)
The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye
Click for full text.
VISUAL ESSAY
In Art We Trust: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Paradox
This eBook is a visual essay I composed while pursuing my B.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University, for a powerful course entitled "Literature and Culture of The Great Depression."
PERSONAL ESSAY
In 2016, I successfully presented this essay to the admissions committee of the Master of Arts in Teaching Literature Program at Bard College. Sadly, after attending my first semester in the program, I had to withdraw due to the demands of a personal tragedy.
POETRY RECITATION
Walt Whitman Practices Holding Up a New York Deli
Click for full text.
(Note of integrity: since recording this video, the poem has been revised for forthcoming publication.)