ORIGINS: Roads That Led Me Here is my first attempt. After months of false starts, this is the poetry that stuck. At their worst, they are a hodgepodge mess of chaos. At their best, they compile a self portrait, a self analysis. These are the poems, the gifts, I wrote for and offered to myself. They may perhaps, be of no interest to you. Yet, as Wendell Berry reminds us, “the arts belong to the neighborhood,” thus I offer them to you. Do with them what you will.
DEAR GOD, DEAR ME: A Poem in Two Parts is a letter to God, and an imagined response. What began as a poem of questions ended in answers. I take credit for both sections of this poem, yet part of me still believes that the latter was authored outside these hands. At the least, it was a therapeutic process, one that helped me process through years of a faith hurled into crisis.
QUESTIONS FOR THE CRUCIFIED is a collection of poems written to victims of murder, lynching, state sponsored execution, and other forms of terrorism. Upon it’s completion, this lenten reflection will include forty poems as well as additional reflections on each poem’s subject.
EYE WITNESS is perhaps best described as a hybrid of poetry and theatre. Each poem will attempt to embody a particular biblical character speaking to the audience and reader from a particular moment in the biblical narrative. I dream of someday hosting a staged reading of this work.
SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS is a meditation on emotion told through the lens of depression and anxiety disorder. Authors have long used similar metaphors to explore the human condition. By contemplating the waters (emotions and illness) and the raft (ways of coping), I’ll continue that work.