Creative

My life has been consumed by the written word. Here are some examples of my creative work, as well as some of my critical musings on same…

Criticism and Commentary

Saying Goodbye to Poetry
I’ve been a poetry my whole adult life, and then some. But no more.

The “What If” Question: A Writer Who Loves Poetry Rants About Poetry (and Democracy Gone Astray)
I am rather vehemently in favor of everyone getting a shot. On a level playing field. But our culture is ill-served by Postmodern, hyper-democratic ideology and by how it is understood and implemented in our arts.

Ars Poetica: Reflecting on What Exactly Poetry Is (After Completing My Latest Book)
Begin with a story. A beautiful, or tragic, or haunted, or funny, or painful, or spiritually revealing story. Then rip out the journalism. What remains is the poem.

The Hegemony of Poetry vs. Lyrics
People love talking about how popular musicians are the poets of our day. Which sounds nice. But trust me, poetry and lyrics are very different art forms.

Fiction

The Day Daddy Died
It’s around 9 a.m. May 1, 1994. My stepmother, Kathie, has spent the night at Forsyth Memorial Hospital with my father, Larry, who will die late this afternoon…. Originally appeared in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Pictures of Venus
Love, loss, and the taste of gun oil. Appears in the Spring 2003 issue of storySouth.

One Thing Leads to Another
Rocky Rigby tries to do the right thing. Appears in the Summer 2003 issue of Wilmington Blues.

Poetry

Three Poems at Poetry Pacific
A great new online journal, edited by the talented Changming Yuan, liked “Photo Album: Venezia, 1562,” “Kitsune’s Wedding” and “Coderain.”

Three Poems at Amethyst Arsenic
Thanks to editor extraordinaire Samantha Milowsky for graciously publishing “1638,” “Wedding Song,” and “Meditation: Monarch Mountain.”

“Eleven Fables” and “To Be Continued (Ars Poetica)” Published in Manifest West Anthology
I’m really pleased to have these poems included in this great new Western State Colorado University Press anthology focusing on the American West.

Six Poems at Pemmican
“Old Ethan, Halfway Home,” “Eleven Fables,” “William and Maud,” “Sage,” “To Be Continued (Ars Poetica),” and “Nora and Torvald on the Mall of Dreams.”

The Miles Between Here and Home
Chapbook, 20 poems. The Dead Mule, April 2003. Poems include “The Laying on of Hands,” “Quality of Life Concerns Among the Spiritually Dispossessed in the New Suburban South,” “The Broadman Hymnal,” “Starkeep II,” “What Happens to Old Men at Sundown,” “Kyrie,” “Gravity,” “Chardonnay,” “Old Florida, Given Back,” “The Miles Between Here and Home,” “Zen and the Art of Rainfall,” “Wyoming,” “Oracle,” “Old Ethan and the Death of Linear Thinking,” “Portrait of the Artist as a Rec League Soccer Player,” “Lauderdale, Low Tide,” “The Turning,” “Drift,” “Starkeep,” “The Effect of Wind Resistance on the Speed of Light,” and “Stormwatch.”

High Country Wireless
Shine it on/burn it down…

Covenant
Our legions are marching on the City of Rain…

X
…a spasm of youth sizing up the desperation of middle age… Appears in the March-April 2004 issue of Wilmington Blues.

Archipelago
My tribute to a friend who took his own life.