"Peering beyond the immediate situation, beyond this particular moment in life, she [Sylvia Plath] casts a darkly prognostic eye toward the rosary of moments stringing her uncertain future — a future that would soon include a passionate but damaging love,..." www.themarginalian.org/2021/06/18/s...

My 3rd poetry collection has dropped. If you preordered (thank you), they should be on their way. If not, you can order it here gnashingteethpublishing.com/books/isness/

Ever since my spouse passed away, I have not been posting much. I will soon get back to it. Patience, please.

Excited to announce that my new poetry collection "is(ness)" set for release September 2025. I encourage you to reserve your copy & preorder. This collection offers a unique experience, distinct from my previous works. Secure your copy by preordering today. gnashingteethpublishing.com/books/isness/

"[...] this capturing of the surface of emotional fact is useful for other people in that it jolts them into thinking, into doing their own act of understanding." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5...

"Hesse offers a hierarchical taxonomy predicated on the same sentiment. He outlines three key types, which can similarly coexist within a single reader over the course of a lifetime, [...]". www.themarginalian.org/2016/07/11/h...

"When we name things simply, with words preceding their meaning, a cosmic narration takes place. Does the discovery of origins remove the dust?" --Etel Adnan (1925-2021). www.themarginalian.org/2021/11/16/e...

"Bob Kaufman Reading Malvinas Cafe, SF, December 6, 1974 by Horace Washington" youtu.be/ZlWwkaDNZQQ?...

"I don't think I ever decided on a career as a poet. I began by writing a few little verses, but I never thought any of them would be published or that I would go on to publish books." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3...

"The song does remember the deceased, and it’s the song that helps the deceased move on—to ascend, in the words of the poem, to the next life.[...] apply it to senses of transition [...]." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...

"(Donald) Hall considers the secret to the kind of lasting love that blooms between the mundane and the magical." www.themarginalian.org/2022/07/13/d...

"A confessional poem is more diary-like and confined to the here and now and without much aesthetic dignity." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6...

"To teach creative writing—I think that’s dangerous. [...] —where a poet who was very busy got students to finish his poems for him. Then you’d really be teaching, and you’d be responsible, of course, since the results would go out under the poet’s name." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3...

"[...] there is something built into our national system, self-destruction, that goes round and round; repetition without progress; evolution of disagreements." imagejournal.org/article/gnos...

"On an archival On Being episode titled “Opening to Our Lives,” mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn reads Walcott’s masterpiece — undoubtedly one of the greatest, most soul-stretching poems ever written." www.themarginalian.org/2015/04/21/l...

"Poetry interrupts the momentum of story, unweaves the narrative thread with which we cocoon our inner worlds." www.themarginalian.org/2021/04/30/d...

"What part of your writing routine do you think would surprise your readers? (Interviewer) The sheer number of breakfasts I eat. (Jess Walter)" lithub.com/jess-walters...

"[...] the zenith of Japanese aesthetics is deeply rooted in the glorious imperfection of the present moment and its relationship to the realities of the past: [...]". www.themarginalian.org/2015/05/28/i...

"And although we are “creatures shaped by the planet’s rocky logic,” we are also creatures shaped by the myriad mercies of time, saved over and over by the leap beyond logic that is trusting time." www.themarginalian.org/2025/06/21/s...

"A great many of these company terms originate in one of the first books printed in English after the invention of the Gutenberg Press: the Boke of Seynt Albans [Book of Saint Albans], also known as The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Blasing of Arms." www.themarginalian.org/2024/01/04/b...

"[...] little pink clouds over the cascading hills at sunset and their patchwork shadows across farmland cut through with meandering creeks, [...] framed by vibrant green leaves against the dusty nightfall, it becomes obvious why these are called the Enchanted Mountains." lithub.com/it-happened-...

"Some have suggested the only criticism poetry requires is poetry itself, but this stance overlooks the ways in which all art (even poetry!) enjoys an uneasy relationship with commerce and market forces and so is always in need of honest redress." northseapoets.substack.com/p/winners-an...

"Essential as pollinators and essential as muses to poets, hummingbirds animate every indigenous spiritual mythology of their native habitats and are sold as wearable trinkets [...]." www.themarginalian.org/2021/05/07/s...

"My optimism rises. No longer do I ask the impossible. I am happy with smaller things, and perhaps that is a sign, a clue… Every day is a renewed prayer that the god exists, that he will visit with increased force and clarity." -Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) www.themarginalian.org/2022/10/05/m...

"Captain Silas Soule's presence at both of these important peace meetings reinforced the decisions he made at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864, when he showed extraordinary courage in refusing to participate in the massacre of the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho." www.nps.gov/sand/learn/h...

"The following interview was conducted in November 2004, at my flat in Highbury, London. Simic was over to promote the publication of his Selected Poems: 1963–2001, and to read at Poetry International." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5...

"In 1849, a little over 175 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe was found dead in a Baltimore gutter under mysterious circumstances very likely related to violent election fraud. It was an ignominious end to a life marked by hardship, alcoholism, and loss." www.openculture.com/2024/06/edga...

RIP Fanny Howe (1940-2025). "Saying the unsayable has been Howe’s task since she started as a poet, and it continues in Love and I. Sometimes this takes the form of speaking political and social truths about America [...]". www.commonwealmagazine.org/i-loved-lovi...

My 4th of July poem “8. Fireworks” from my book “Ghostword” (Gnashing Teeth Publishing). 1st appearing in “Presence: The Heartspeak of Indigenous Poets”, 11-23-18 curated for the Rumpus by Tanaya Winder (Duckwater Shoshone). gnashingteethpublishing.com/books/ghostw... therumpus.net/2018/11/23/p...

"[...] the Blackfoot man who became a social media sensation in connection with the phrase “skoden” (“let’s go then”), turns into a moving profile of Pernell Bad Arm." www.nativeamericacalling.com/thursday-jul...

"The minds of the two lovers merge, interact in sympathy of thought." -- H.D. (September 10, 1886–September 27, 1961). www.themarginalian.org/2025/07/02/h...

"You were made to be yourselves. You were made to enrich the world with a sound, a tone, a shadow." --Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877–August 9, 1962). www.themarginalian.org/2019/01/15/h...

Arthur Sze reinforced my commitment to writing. I am grateful for his continued inspiration. I was a student of his from 1990 to 92. I still consider myself a student of his. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

"Endurance, indeed, is perhaps the sole common denominator among successful authors." www.themarginalian.org/2016/02/08/j...

ALOCASIA is now open for applications for the ALOCASIA Microgrant for Queer Nature Writers! The recipient will receive $500. To apply, [email protected] with the subject line MICROGRANT. Only writers within the US can be considered. Deadline: July 31st, 2025. alocasia.org/alocasias-mi...

I just realized my Bluesky profile has become a repository of articles I've read and not much else. I suppose in doing so, I want to revisit and refer to them in the future because of a statement that was made. Sorry, my profile is not so interesting.

When explaining to my students how to use the two, they still do not understand. They still use the two incorrectly.

"To Stan Persky March 8, 1959 Baseball players do not make love to each other when passing third base. But on the same team?!" www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/06...

"Instead of sitting and looking out of the window, I just sank into the weather and the trees, dancing around in the environment of Ireland, which I know by its smell." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/8...

A talk by Robert Creely on William Carlos Williams, two of my influential writers and poets. (5 mins audio). www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH4q...

I recall reading this story as a teenager and being amazed by the diverse range of stories that could be written. “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson www.newyorker.com/magazine/194...

"This essay is by far the most personal piece I have ever written, and publishing it feels like the scariest—and most important [...]. It is about the hell that was my childhood, and how systems of power and abuse are created—and upheld." --Emily Fox Kaplan www.guernicamag.com/the-protagon...

"As a young man, W. H. Auden renounced his faith. He wrote his most popular poems during this period of unbelief in his native England—notably the rousing civil-war poem “Spain.”" www.commonwealmagazine.org/dust-dust

"I really haven’t done anything for ages and there are a couple of things I’d like to finish before I die. Two or three poems and two long stories. Maybe three." www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3...

"I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too…" - EM Forster mailchi.mp/themarginali...

"Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there." ~ Vine Deloria Jr.

"For more than forty years, Oliver lived on Cape Cod with the love of her life, [...]". www.themarginalian.org/2015/01/20/m...

Here are three poems by John Barr to mark the beginning of hurricane season. John Barr is a poet I admire. "A hurricane is no friend to any living thing. Even the fish must head for deeper waters when the mountainous seas arrive." medium.com/@johnbarrpoe...

“I started hearing the dead. And I felt that, because I had some new knowledge, I had something to give people—that I had things to say that would make them feel better.” —Alice Notley

Deadline extended! 15 days left! ALOCASIA is open for creative writing for an all-Indigenous issue to be published this summer. ALOCASIA publishes writing about plants by Indigenous queer writers from around the world. Deadline: June 25th. alocasia.org/about-send-w...