Tuesday, December 10, 2019

ripped wings what you make of faith

*Published in Sonic Boom Issue Sixteen
**Selected for the 2019 Red Moon Anthology

Monday, December 9, 2019

If I May Be Honest

not enough love poems
have been written
for the leaves
sparkling wildly
in golden hour light
or the river’s
tender aria
playing dawn to dusk
simply
for anyone who
wishes to hear

*Published in Fireflies’ Light: A Magazine of Short Poems #17

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Why Not

you can be
anything in the world
so why not
be a parachute
covered in the most luminous
warm hues
helping others land
gracefully
after a most precarious fall

*Published in Fireflies’ Light: A Magazine of Short Poems #17

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Hummingbird

it must be
how starlight
falls upon this
foreign city
because I tell you
I could roam this earth
non-stop
as the vagabond
I wish I could be
with only the essentials
slung upon my back
and your hand
nestled in mine

*Published in Fireflies’ Light: A Magazine of Short Poems #17

Friday, December 6, 2019

First Snow

when I see
for the first time
each year
the way snow reflects
a shimmering moon
upon a world 
fast asleep
I might as well
be a child again
opening her first present
on Christmas Eve

*Published in Fireflies’ Light: A Magazine of Short Poems #17

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

avalanche sobering up

*

azaleas opening a hymnal

*Published in seashores, Volume 3

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

blue
the memory
of seashells

*Published in the November 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Monday, November 25, 2019

quiet today
a palmful of stones
skipped along the pond

*

colder now
I sip my tea
with reverence

*Published in Another Trip Around the Sun: 365 days of haiku for children young and old

Sunday, November 24, 2019

only silence
could end you

the way
dusk falls

*

uncertain
the crickets hush
hush now

*

the silver behind the wind I never knew

*Published by Weird Laburnum on 11/24/19

Saturday, November 16, 2019

handle with care

please
do not incinerate
my remains into useless ash
or mix my skeleton
with the endless fog of layered
earth upon earth
clean my bones with reverence
dust them
shine them like the fine china
families pass down
generation to generation
and then gently use my bones
to drum out 
a rhythm only the sea and sky
could comprehend 

*Published by Poetry Super Highway (Poet of the Week: November 18 - 24, 2019)

Friday, November 15, 2019

wilderness
uncle asks
what I cost

*Published in Bones 18

Thursday, November 14, 2019

every road a cliff after the bomb after the bomb

*

skeleton in the cloud I also knew as mother

*

more humanity than humanity late-autumn oak

*Published by Proletaria on 11/14/19

Saturday, November 9, 2019

a used copy of e e cummings’ 95 poems 

i love it when a book smells like coffee. smells like cigarettes. like an unidentifiable existential crisis that i just happen to hold in my hand. <<< breathe in. out. again. >>> when the edges are stained and crumpled. smashed from a fistfight with recklessness or passion. <<< those are the same thing, right? >>> if this book could bleed it would. if it could talk it would scream every word at me. and oh God. yes. i would let it.

*Published by Dime Show Review 

Monday, November 4, 2019

bathed in red church bells ring

*

autumn leaves falling into has been

*

in the river drifting through an ellipsis 

*Published in the 2019 issue of Under the Basho (One-line Haiku section)

Friday, November 1, 2019


stigma

i would love to say
recovery has a finish line 
one where crowds roar 
as you break the paper divide 
with arms outstretched 
in hallelujah praise God 
recovery really is 
a thankless job you 
more or less do in the dark 
it’s also a taskmaster 
that waits by your bed each dawn 
sayin’ get up g-damnit 
don’t drown in victimhood 
and when you finally decide to hoist
up that golden survivor flag 
you begin to curse that title 
more and more each day 
all you want 
after all your scars
is to be a human 
free of mark

*Published in From The Ashes: An International Anthology of Womxn's Poetry

Thursday, October 31, 2019

still a fairytale

once upon a time 
there was a young girl 
curly and tawny haired 
her home was filled with monsters 
that would scream and punch 
all through the night 
sometimes those monsters 
would even invade her in dreams 
their teeth would gnash as they’d chase her 
blindly through streets 
the young girl was always afraid 
so she began to knit 
her own dreams during the light 
in secret 
and away from prying eyes 
she was a princess 
an angel 
or a glitter-speckled fairy 
she realized she could be anything 
and those monsters
had no defense 
against the castle of her own design

*Published in From The Ashes: An International Anthology of Womxn's Poetry

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

weight of a word

age 22
the first time my therapist 
uses the forbidden term 
inc*st
i remember how that noun 
sank into my body 
an anvil dropping down down
into the sea
nowhere to be found 
for day weeks months 
i couldn’t even say the word
inc*st 
without wanting to vomit 
i even told my husband 
i wanted to die just to be reborn 
as if that would clean 
up those dirty places 
i dared not even touch 
so i stopped saying the word 
inc*st
called it the big bad 
big ugly 
my own personal Voldemort 
anything except the actual word 
to extricate myself from the reality 
that came barreling with it 
and that’s the problem 
you see 
how could i ever heal
from a word i refused to say?
i let that word place cuffs
upon my wrists 
shackles around my ankles 
and duct tape over my mouth 
the only way to break free 
i realized 
was to begin saying 
without shame or fear or filter 
that i survived 
the word no one ever wants to hear

*Published in From The Ashes: An International Anthology of Womxn's Poetry

Monday, October 28, 2019

bird of paradise
my untamed
hair

*Published in the October 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

maggots
your
weaponized
hands

*

as if you never left the pull of night

*

forgiveness rounding the mountain’s peak

*Published by Weird Laburnum on 10/21/19

Monday, October 21, 2019

deep space
finally I hear
the pulse of heaven

*

infinite horizon
how much
I have yet to learn

*

dewdrop
for a second
our worlds collide

*

gentle rain
my present
now sweet

*

hope
in my vision
hundreds of stars

*

bright sky
the universe
needs you

*

heart of the cosmos
breathing in
all that will ever be

*

sunlit expanse
this must be where
healing begins

*

answered prayers
when planets
align

*Published in Incense Dreams 3.1

Friday, October 11, 2019

believe me

every poem
is a love song
for you

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Thursday, October 10, 2019

thesis

i don’t write
because i need comfort or love
or strength
i already have those in spades
from the one who crafted me
long before
mother even carried my torch
i write because
far too many people hang
their heads low
sink into their shame
simply because they still
believe someone else’s filth
dirties their bodies
and forever taints their souls

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

acceptance

today
i will do nothing more than float
float in the infinite ocean
of what could be
face up
arms open as wide as the universe
ready to feel
to embrace
the dark
the light
the sanctity
of all that is
and all that will be

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Monday, October 7, 2019

spark

when i cannot feel
the pulse of love under my skin
i run my hands
over grass warmed
by the sun’s tender light
there i say
is the key
that touch
that connection
zip lines to my heart
and says open please open
you are safe

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Sunday, October 6, 2019

a simple truth

only after i forgave
could i smell the bloomed rose

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Saturday, October 5, 2019

upgrades

i traded
his salt for honey
his venom for medicine
and that
my loves
is how i survived

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Friday, October 4, 2019

take my hand

at what point
will every last one of us
admit
we hold more pain
in our bodies
our minds
our hearts
than we have the strength
to carry alone

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Thursday, October 3, 2019

dissonance

you say
there are no dirty rooms in your soul
yet i
have been cleaning them each night

*Displayed in The Art of Recovery exhibition at Edison State Community College

Sunday, September 29, 2019

prelude
in D major
the sun’s slow ascent

*

free jazz
all at once
birdsong

*

syncopation
the wind
before the storm

*

coda
breathing in
day’s fall

*Published in the autumn 2019 edition of The Bamboo Hut

Friday, September 27, 2019

dynamite when prophesy blows my dust

*

not your ordinary eclipse the anvil of remembrance

*

dark matter unmaking our daily bread

*

going going gone the black of pitch

*

unsheathing daggers your bones expose the lie

*

one with Polaris and yet the amygdala kicks

*

divisible by infinity all that could have been

*

where your story ends I combust into a rose

*Published in my first e-chapbook: says the rose (Yavanika Press 2019)

Monday, September 16, 2019

It’s Not Insomnia If You Love It

within
the moon’s glow

I understood
why saints

fixed their eyes
upon the heavens

why artists
never sleep

*Published in Molecule: a tiny lit mag (Issue 1)

Sunday, September 15, 2019

I’m happy to announce that my first e-chapbook, says the rose (Yavanika Press 2019), is now available for download. You can view it for free here.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

omen
your
mouth
opens

*

wasp
sting
more
bullets
with
(in)
souls

*Published by Weird Laburnum on 9/10/19

Sunday, September 8, 2019

contents under pressure to be human

*Published in Issue 1.8 of Human/Kind Journal
**Nominated for The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Individual Poem Award by the editor

Saturday, September 7, 2019

if not for arias / I would have / breathed / in dirt

*

threading / a cosmos a garden / together / buck moon

*

the black / bird sings / why then / loaded guns

*Published in Otata 45 (September 2019)

Friday, September 6, 2019

the lake

there’s a lake
i watch each day
in her waves i see
diamonds
stars
and distant planets
i’ll only ever travel in dreams
she’ll never know
how much
she has healed my spirit 
in this life
except when i return 
to the source of all things
and embrace her hand
in thanks

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19


let them in

if
you ever feel alone
go outside
and look up to the heavens
those clouds
those stars
are with you in this moment
they’ll share
your joys and aches
if
you let them in your heart

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
first steps

when i started to speak up
i barely recognized
my own voice
as if hearing it for the first time
i had to learn
its cadence and cracks
and let its imperfections 
feel safe
to my own ears and tongue

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Thursday, September 5, 2019

everyday grace

if flowers only knew
how lovely
how special they are
they might develop an ego
as we humans
have a tendency to do
instead they share
their life without pretense
even when they wither
lose their petals
and breathe their last breaths
they do it with so much grace
you’d think a ballerina
was taking bow
after a solo in Swan Lake

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
city of dreams

this evening
i will take
the sun’s hand
in mine
and we shall roam
together
in the city of dreams
expertly weaving
fantasy and reality
until the moon
once again
exits the land

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

unsolved

there’s something unique
about the scent of fall
if i could describe it
i’d guess
a mix of cinnamon 
and brown sugar
or maybe patchouli
warmed by campfire smoke
but as much as i love
an answer
for every mystery
i shall let this one
remain unsolved

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
i dare you

upon rising
from the world of sleep
i dare you
to lift your hands
towards the heavens
and give thanks
for blood rushing
through your veins
for breath coming
into your lungs
and for a mind
that still is able 
to comprehend
the meaning of blessed

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

just listen

it is easy
to discard thoughts
as if they are meaningless
as useful as trash
yet
if you pay close attention 
to the whirlwind of words
circling your mind
some of those musings
after all
might be beautiful enough
to be called art

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
like the flame

hope is a candle
 buried deep within my soul
the flame has yet
to perish or tire
it persists
day and night
and like the flame
so shall i 

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Monday, September 2, 2019

treasure chest

each day i journey
to the far ends of the Earth
reclaiming pieces of my heart
fractured and broken off

they are scattered among ruins
of temples long-deserted
hidden deep in forests between
seeds of lilies yet to bloom

woe are my feet
from hiking through islands
ravaged by storms
yet there is nothing i won’t do
to become
the person i was when birthed

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
singin’ the afterlife blues

alone i sit
on the surface of the moon
watching my former home spin and spin
as clouds dance across
endless blue

i remember
spending years in a daze
not caring
if i lived or died

but now that i am here
in the audience of stars
i would give anything to run
my hands over spring trees and breathe
in their sweet air
until my lungs said no more
no more

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Sunday, September 1, 2019

give yourself this

it’s okay
to not be okay
nothing about being human
is ever easy
so you owe it to yourself 
to lay down your armor and weep
and no one needs to know
why
those tears were shed

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
in the beginning

if energy can neither
be created
nor destroyed
what if we
are all sparks
left over from the moment
God said
let there be light

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Saturday, August 31, 2019

humble hearts

to be human
is to be
a survivor
believe me
pain spares no one
not even the one 
who marks their door
with the blood
of a lamb
life always has
a way
of humbling
every heart

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19
children of light

after the abuse
i burned myself
alive
then scooped up
those ashes
created sculptures
of doves
of roses
and told the match
in my hand
children of light
never truly die

*Performed at Art Inspiring Art (Brown’s Run Country Club) on 8/30/19

Friday, August 30, 2019

rape. Things you learn from family

*Published in the August 2019 edition of is/let
**Reprinted in Haiku 2020 (Modern Haiku Press)

Thursday, August 29, 2019

and then I heard the Psalms dueling the dead of night

*Published in the August 2019 edition of is/let

Monday, August 26, 2019

within
the spiraled cactus
old stars

*Published in the August 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Salve

Every once in a while, I just need to lie down on the floor, close my eyes, and listen to some good old-fashioned blues.

mm-hmm
when the record
scratches my itch

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 8/24/19

Sunday, August 18, 2019

winding smoke
your always
twisted truth

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 8/18/19

Friday, August 16, 2019

so light the match 

tonight
there will be no rest

not while black knots
sink into my core

you i
i you

in the end where
there is only oblivion

in the end where
i become death

where i trap you under
my soot-sullied boots

where the only word
i breathe is blaze

within the fire
within the fire

to start again

within the fire
within the fire

*Published in The Ekphrastic Review’s Mark Rothko Writing Challenge on 8/16/19

Saturday, August 10, 2019

of all
that I could touch

this pond
became music

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 8/10/19; reprinted on 8/14/19 with a correction 

Sunday, August 4, 2019

oolong
why rush
this moment

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 8/4/19

Thursday, August 1, 2019

sonata
when the sun
hangs low

*Published in Otata 44 (August 2019)

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

behind
your
doors
lilies
combust

*

like
totems
our
tendons

*

deep
in the thicket
locks without keys

*

fault
line
the
other
self
waits

*

abbreviations
and other
various lies

*

casting spells the wind the wind the wind

*Published by Weird Laburnum on 7/31/19

Friday, July 26, 2019

alchemy
each dogwood
springs to life

*Published in the July 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Monday, July 22, 2019

consent
and other
beautiful words

*Published by Haikuniverse (www.haikuniverse.com) on 7/22/19

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Christmas in July

You'd think I'd be a tough-as-nails person by now, but I'm not. Each time I speak up about an injustice, the girl inside of me crawls into a tight ball, as if to protect herself from an impending head-on crash. I know that might sound rather dramatic, but speaking up is a risky venture. In fact, during the past three decades, I have been on the receiving end of death threats, beatings, and job, family, and friend loss as a result of sharing my truth.  
 
So, in the time between now and whatever the future may hold, regarding my latest effort to break the silence, I am doing the only logical thing I can: hug my knees and hum out-of-season holiday tunes to an empty room.

nuclear fallout
but first
a dance

*Published in Issue 1.6 of Human/Kind Journal

Monday, July 15, 2019

head smashed arguing orange until green

*

alien probe
not bad
for a Monday

*Published in Bones 17

Friday, July 12, 2019

moment of peace
just me
and autumn’s hush

*

fearless
I let the snow fall
upon my tongue

*

newfound hope
hints of green
bathe the woodland

*

joyful noise
the crunch of earth
beneath my sole

*Published in the summer 2019 edition of The Bamboo Hut

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

perhaps this is freedom walking upon ghosts

*

obsidian shards
surely
you’ll outlast me

*

solemn grit
axing off
his red

*Published by Weird Laburnum on 7/9/19

Friday, June 28, 2019

remix
hearing the maple tree’s ocean

*Published in Otata 43 (July 2019)

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

falling in love
again
early summer

*Published in the June 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Father’s Day
another long walk
in solitude

*Published in Creatrix 45

Saturday, June 8, 2019

thousands of people
die fleeing Syria
no one
stops to mourn
the crushed leaves

*Published in Skylark 13

Thursday, June 6, 2019

like the folds
woven into origami
I am
creating my life
into a thing of beauty

*Published in Issue #20 of Moonbathing

Saturday, June 1, 2019

in the cello

a heartbeat
once owned

by the willow

*Published in Otata 42 (June 2019)

Friday, May 31, 2019

(at family dinners I played the role of Very Nice Houseplant)

On paper, the difference between speaking with someone versus speaking to someone is quite superficial. Insignificant, perhaps. “Why even bother analyzing this?” you might ask. In terms of semantics, however, the difference between those two is as significant as crossing a pond versus navigating an ocean. 

invisible 
my sweat  
in the Pacific 

*Published in Issue 1.5 of Human/Kind Journal

Thursday, May 30, 2019

not quite Mozart the staccato in our parting

*Published in tinywords issue 19.1 (5/30/19)

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

into June’s hymn I recast her death

*

my other name the redwood hums a processional

*Published in the May 2019 edition of is/let

Sunday, May 26, 2019

bark
masquerading as velvet
blood ties

*

rocket smoke
if the sun doesn’t
shake me first

*

shift to Aeolian
a son picks up
his father’s cross

*Published by Weird Laburnum on 5/26/19

Saturday, May 25, 2019

lightning
what remains
unsaid

*Published in the May 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Fingers Crossed

I see this meme over and over: Someone is behind the wheel (cue steely gaze of determination), and the text reads something to the extent of “deciding if I should go home or leave town.” Leave town? Really? That’s your big getaway plan? 

If I’m gonna blow this popsicle stand, I’m not just gonna leave this town, state or country. I’m gonna truck it out of this planet, this solar system, this galaxy, this universe, and hitch a ride on a parallel dimension’s Big Bang and start from absolute square zero within absolute square zero. 

rewrite 
the sky finally 
rains glitter

*Published in Issue 1.4 of Human/Kind Journal

Saturday, April 27, 2019

soul sisters
juniper limbs dance
in the wind

*

baptism
all of the sky
rains upon me

*Published by Incidental Haiku on 4/26/19

Friday, April 26, 2019

enough

you will never have
a day like today
where the clouds tango
gently across the sky
and you will never have
a night like tonight
where the sun falls
gracefully
into its rainbow-glazed bed
ask the birds
the flowers
the trees
if they pine for more
and they'll ask in return
with sweet curiosity
what is more

*Published in the first issue of glide (Wright Memorial Public Library)

Thursday, April 25, 2019

shades of blue
frost clings
to each rose

*Published in the April 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku 

Saturday, April 20, 2019

beer can hiss
the guitar screams
its first riff

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/20/19

Friday, April 19, 2019

between
you and me
constant thunder

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/19/19

Thursday, April 18, 2019

cost of war
fields of roses
burned to ash

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/18/19

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

I wait
for the heartache to end
all night
not one meteor
has lit up the sky

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/17/19
**Dedicated to Alvah Allen, co-editor and founder of Fresh Out (RIP)

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

one illusion into another haze of patchouli

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/16/19

Monday, April 15, 2019

sleepless
I know the moon
understands

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/15/19

Thursday, April 11, 2019

forward into backward your honey mask slips

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/11/19

Saturday, April 6, 2019

pounding on the echo chamber door my no to your yes

*Published in Sonic Boom Issue Fourteen

Thursday, April 4, 2019

wild bergamot
how I yearn
to be young again

*Published by Fresh Out: An Arts and Poetry Collective on 4/4/19

Thursday, March 28, 2019

delta waves
the snow takes me deep within

*

star’s lament
no silver in mother’s voice

*

entering the ley line I inhale Venus

*Published in Otata 40 (April 2019)


Monday, March 25, 2019

impromptu boogie
one tulip bud
then two

*Published in the March 2019 issue of Stardust Haiku

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Cross of Mine
Inspired by Hans Hoffmann's Laburnum

It is in chaos that I thrive,
in the spirals and drips

of my thoughts made manifest, splashed 
frantically in your gaze,

in the the push-pull affair between 
colors warm and cool. 

Could you exist here, too, 
not just as a spectator in your 

familiar pose: arms akimbo, legs 
planted flush against earth,

but as a lover, a dancer, 
a gunshot, a virus in my veins?

Will you be the one to finally hoist 
up my red-soaked cross,

the one I have carried west to east, 
south to north,

the one I mend and cradle daily 
while you merrily dream?

Or will you walk away
and give back 

the spilled blue of my essence that 
reached for your pulse in song?

*Published by The Ekphrastic Review on 3/24/19