I love all types of poetry, whether it’s slam, sonnets, and everything in between. Perhaps it’s no surprise that I find myself drawn to the Chinese language, with its pictographs and poetic depths.
Some real talk: I’ve been rejected from hundreds of lit mags and presses. Some of the lit mags and presses below rejected me multiple times before finally selecting some of my work. The writing life continues to teach me much about humility, patience, and humor. 🙂
Yet there have been some publication highlights. If I’m allowed to brag a bit (!), I have been published in over 30 lit mags and presses. My haiku “Wispy clouds blanket the sky . . .” received an honorable mention in the 2024 “Moving Words” Competition. I was delighted to win the 2022 WWPH Writes the Holidays contest, and I was chosen as a finalist in the 2021 New York Encounter poetry contest. I have an MFA in poetry from the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University, and I served as the final Poetry Editor at Geez Magazine.
My sestina “Zephyr Wind Talks to a Kite in Athens” and my poem “A Game of Oware in Ghana” both appear in the summer 2024 issue of Cable Street.
Yellow Arrow kindly included “Lullaby as Lament” in their spring 2024 ELEVATE issue.
Check out my ghazal “Night Sky Ghazal” in the summer 2024 issue of The Orchards Poetry Journal.
Flipped Mitten press kindly included my poem “Bound for Foxe’s Book?” in their anthology Ache: the Body’s Experience of Religion, March 2024.
“Crowdsourcing” appeared in “Nature,” the inaugural issue of Big Wing Review, February 2024.
Clerestory published my pantoum “Hymn for the Front Porch Rocking Chair” as part of their “Embodiment” issue, autumn 2023.
Pilgrimage Magazine published my poem “Jaspers Jumble in a Basket” in their “Healing” issue, September 2023.
I dialogue with a poem from my younger self in “My Poem Then, My Poem Now,” which first appeared in Anabaptist World, July 2023.
Check out “Dithyramb* for My Club Feet” at Faith+Lead, July 2023.
“Perichoresis: Divine Choreography” appears in the 2023 issue of Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry
The Sunlight Press published my poem “A Blessing for My Neighbor Jim” at the end of January, 2023.
My cinquain poem “Etymology of the Word ‘Parable‘” won the 2022 WWPH Writes the Holidays contest.
“How to Do Nothing,” a villanelle, is published at Untold Volumes, August 2022.
Reformed Worship published my sonnet (and accompanying commentary) for “One of Herald’s Soldiers in Bethlehem Speaks,” August 2022.
“A Lullaby Patchwork Quilt,” which is a cento poem, and “After I Close a Beloved Book” both debuted in Abditory Literary Magazine, July 2022.
Macrina Magazine published “Autobiography of an Origami Lantern” June 2022.
Check out my poem “Cabin Fever Compels Me to Bike to the Anacostia River” in the May 2022 Redbud Post.
Awake Our Hearts published my chiastic poem “A Turn in the River” in their spring 2022 issue.
Check out “The Tao of Christ” with Ekstasis magazine.
“Unweaving the Veil” from March 2022 is at Amethyst Review.
Clerestory magazine published “Questioning Plates” in their early 2022 “History” issue.
Amethyst Review published “Triptych for Cosmic Music” on Christmas Eve, 2021.
Here are several of my haiku in the November 2021 issue of Better Than Starbucks.
Earth & Altar published my contrapuntal poem “The Kingdom of God, at Hand.”
“Sharing Charlotte” is on pages 54-55 of the Summer 2021 issue of Tipton Poetry Journal.
In the April 2021 Redbud Post, “The Next Labyrinth Journey” chronicles, and contrasts, the varied ways that a labyrinth can be a spiritual practice.
I explore new ways to celebrate Advent in the middle of a pandemic in my poem “New Advent Practices,” which is part of Vita Poetica‘s 2020 Advent calendar.
What happens when a rain drop crashes into your face? “Of Asses and Raindrops” poses the possibilities.
Check out “Be Still and Know,” a sonnet at Bearings Online.
I also love to create erasures from old playbills. Geez Magazine published my first erasure, “breathing and unfettered,” in their spring 2019 issue.