Published Poems, Press, and Practice Poems.
Poems on this page often move between draft and published. You’ll see a book cover when a poem is published and part of a print collection. When poems are removed, they go to my workshop with other draft poems to be posted on this site later, or it is in the workshop to be published in my next collection. Posting poems on this site helps me view them in a new light. Generally, poems move through significant revision (though folks who write poetry often never tell you as such) to reach their potential. In a way, it’s like a different music set list for my inspirational occasions.
Woodstove in the Old Ranch House
Himalayan Blackberry
Cow Jam
My first word as a child was cow.
At five o’clock,
twice each-and-every day,
some fifty-five cows, or more,
would pass my way,
The Wind Storm
Barbed Wire
Old leather gloves
and wound metal of barbed wire,
dry my sweating hands
from nicks and new scars’ ire,
so let this western red cedar
Gone Too Soon
Afternoon Music Hour
Night Swimming
Mr. Buzzard
Coos River Cemetery
We Talk to the River
Rope Swing Tryst
Coos River School
Down by the Creek
Birth of the Coos River Beauty Apple
Contrary Bend
Tidal River Swimming Hole
On the River We Float
I am upriver without care,
free of town’s weight and structure,
as my untempered soul and bent frame
the cool-summer water gently laps,
this partial shade from the shore’s willow and myrtle
a welcome, freckled cap, signaling celebration—