One of the elements that originally drew me to creative writing was the inherent freedom of choice that comes with it. Everything from basic organization to creative intention is subject to the whims of the writer. Although this can be said of other types of writing as well, it is particularly true for poetry. One can choose to write poetry as dense as a philosophical treatise, as contained and focused as the description of an appetizer on a restaurant menu, and anything in between (or even beyond). Since most of what I write tends to be on the medium-to-long end of things, I have included here some more recent, shorter poems. Shorter poetry can give the reader a little more space, a little more room, as it were, to move through and think about what the poem is presenting. So, please, let your eyes wander through these poems at their leisure. It won't take long. If I had to recommend a specific way of reading them, it would be to read over all of them once, then go back and let yourself linger on any particular line that catches your eye. Read it over a few times, then reread the poem it belongs to. But, as is always the case, it is your right as a reader to read them however you wish. Whichever way you choose, I hope you enjoy them.
Service
Drinking espresso like water
Taking communion with the drum corps in my head
That they might stop playing tributes
To my leaden eyelids
You see, now?
It is its own answer
You could not find it
Because it was in your hand
The whole time
Preparing
A choice book, placed in my bag
A bedside promise
To bring worlds with me
Once the sun has risen
Encounter
Between jeans speckled with whitecaps,
A shirt the color of wind
And eyes as brown as bark
I suppose I am but driftwood
Washed up by tide and chance
On the unknown shores
Of your life
