Life matters. Family matters. Every word matters. The truth matters.
Let words build bridges between me and you. This is love.
"Winter Calls for You" Set to Music & Sung in London
The breathtakingly talented musician Sarah Marze set my poem "Winter Calls for You" to music. I feel deeply honored. The Goldsmiths Choral Union sang it on December 13, 2024 at St. John's, Sloane Square, London, under the direction of Jack Apperley. Sarah Marze will have an enduring impact on the world of music. Check out her site at sarahmarze.com.
Winter Calls for You
Sky cover, an eggshell: translucent
Time steeper, sleep keeper, silence dreamer.
Life is at rest and mother-warmed within
A globe within a globe, all life, one life
Under the sun, the press of mother love
And silence, sky cover fractures, dissolves
Light and shadow, swaddles the newborn day
With love promise: winter is for closed eyes
And slowed, quiet hunger. Let spring wake you,
Unwrap you, hold you, raise you lightward,
Open-eyed, filled with dreams of winter night,
Returned from the universe of star souls.
So ends the year as winter starts anew.
Cold earth dims her lights and calls for you.
Angelou, Berry, Oliver, and Carlson: Poetry at Firefly Hill Farm, Woodbury
My poem "Walking" greets guests who walk the trails at Firefly Hill Farm at 1692 North Main Street in Woodbury, Connecticut. The mindful forest walks are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from now until December 1. The Siemon family have put poems, including pieces by Maya Angelou, Wendell Berry, and Mary Oliver, nature facts, and wooden sculptures along the trails for a wonderful experience of nature, poetry, and art.
Poetry in Nine, a Scholarly Baseball Journal - Yes, That's Right
Poetry Collections from Orenaug Mountain Publishing
I'm happy to be editor and poet in these anthologies from Orenaug Mountain Publishing. LEARN MORE
My Most Recent Collections
The sonnets in this collection emerge from the inner peace and the courage that come with honestly facing life on its terms. I connect with the natural world, my family, and the world through these poems, exploring the question of what it means to walk this earth as a human being, one organism among myriad others that make their home on this planet.
Happiness is not a gift, and it is not a simple experience. In this collection of sonnets, Taking Time, I explore both the struggle for happiness and the nature of victory. These poems consider the complex interplay of the individual with place and time in the discovery of happiness.
Mother Tongue is a collection of sonnets that honors language and where it comes from. A mother tongue is a person’s first language. The language we speak first results from a confluence of time, place, and family. These poems continue my exploration of the question of what it means to be here, to be with each other, to understand ourselves as part of a family and a community rooted in history and living right here and now.
Make It Yours is a collection of summer poems that explore what it means to be alive in a specific place, what it means to be family, and what it means to remember.
Choral Song in Woodbury
This is the world premiere of composer Sarah Marze's choral song titled "Waking, Dreaming," performed at the Leroy Anderson House national historic landmark in Woodbury, Connecticut.
The song is derived from a sonnet of the same name by Woodbury poet laureate Sandy Carlson.
Marze, pianist Emma Bocciarelli, and the Voicebox octet and its conductors demonstrated how they transform words into music.