In 1976, I travelled to Budapest, Hungary while it was under Soviet control. I had brought Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago on my trip. It was an illegal book there, so I slipped it to our assigned guide as I could tell he would honor it. “30 Seconds” tells that story of a little dissident act on both our parts. Later that year I met Solzhenitsyn who was a visiting professor at Stanford in a Round Table pizza place near campus. I told him the story. Given his extreme acts of dissidence, I don’t think mine was very impressive to him.
Read More"Off Alki" Seattle Poetry on the Buses
Source: http://poetryonbuses.org
"A Drift of Fishermen" in Timberline
This little poem came out of a series I started some time ago playing with delight plural names. In the case a few fishermen are called a drift. From my home, I watch the fishermen in the early morning on the Sound. This was written after a walk by the water in the winter.
3 Poems in Absoloose Anthology
In addition to publishing two of my previously published poems, "Submission Guidelines" (Gravel) and "How to Run Away" (Claudius Speaks), Absoloose published the poem, "Earthquake" that tells the story of being in Dubrovnik (then part of Yugoslavia) during a massive earthquake. This poem is part of my "Postcards from the Aftermath" series.
4 Poems In Angry Old Man
Angry Old Man Magazine publishes experimental poetry forms. I was delighted that they took for of my weirdest--erasures, sonic and one that is math formulas. Despite their unusual form, these poems deal with important global issues for the most part.
Read More"With the Maasai" in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review
My broken Pantoum is up at Songs of Eretz about a drought I experienced long ago in East Africa. Once again this region is suffering through drought with expectation of malnourishment effecting 1.1 million children under five. Donations toward food security in the region can be made through CARE.
Âme en Peine á Paris in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review
Winner of the 2018 Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize!
Finding My Way Home chapbook available on Amazon! →
and stay tuned for a list of bookstores....
Read MoreThat Fall in 1996 When You Dined With Divas
I had fun with this prose poem. Based on real life experiences, it took on a life of its own once I put it into the second person and strung them all together. Note the connective tissue of sushi throughout. So 1990s! Bloodtree Literature is this gorgeous new publication. I'm delighted to have this work in their second edition. Enjoy.
Book Review of Victoria Chang's Barbie Chang for The Adroit Journal →
I wrote this brief book review for The Adroit Journal's 2017 best books section. I had heard Victoria Chang read from Barbie Chang and was quite taken with her writing, her voice as this alter ego. I have been writing in an alter ego lately (more to come on that soon). Victoria Chang is so adept and clever at weaving her life into her alter ego's voice. Enjoy the review and get the book!
tealeaves
This haibun (Japanese form) poem was inspired by the video created to explain sexual consent. The animated video uses tea as a metaphor for sex. I was struck by how sharing a cup of tea can seem intimate, how there is often ceremony, tradition and expectation involved. This poem eventually evolved into the haibun form which not only played on the Japanese tea ceremony, but also enabled contrast in perspectives (hers/his) (prose/haiku-like) and pacing (fast/slow).
Read MoreFinding My Way Home Chapbook Now on Sale →
Family Secrets
I'm thrilled this poem was selected as a semi-finalist for the very prestigious Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize.
Read MoreGrace
The Seattle Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna created a grid of poems about places in Seattle from Seattle poets. I was delighted to have "Grace" selected to bring to life my lovely neighborhood.
Read More#TED2016
I've had the good fortune to attend TED half a dozen times. It is a most extraordinary experience for the people that are there, the talks shared, the theater of it all. I thought I'd share my take on the last one I attended.
Read MoreHow to Run Away →
This poem was written as part of the Tupelo 30/30 when I had to write a poem a day for 30 days last November.
Read MoreMani Pedi Sestina →
I had such fun writing this sestina. A bit snarky, but meant to amuse. The sestina form came naturally as it provided the opportunity to be playful with words like "snug" and "hinge."
Read MoreStung
"We don't typically decide on submissions this quickly, but we all had a chance to read your poem last night and we immediately fell in love." ~3 Elements Review Editors
Read MoreShore Leave
Shore Leave
Dr. William N. Stone, Boston Harbor, 1869
He could diagnose the particular illness
from across the docks by the way a sailor
walked off the ship and down the gangway.
Rickets: the scrawny bow-legged one.
Scabies: the short sailor, bag shouldered,
free-hand scratching vigorously.
TB: the mick’s hunched, stalling cough.
Another hobbled by gangrene’s deathly creep.
He’d ready the lotions, medicines,
scalpels, suture needles, bandages, whiskey.
Ready for bile-filled bellies, bones badly
broken then badly set. Mites and lice,
scurvy’s blackening bruises, bloody
toothless mouths, wreaked livers,
weakened lungs, busted noses, cauliflower
ears, the ooze of puss from open wounds.
Steady stream. They’d queue outside. First stop
before pubs, whores, dinner, a bath,
while they still had cash in hand.
He’d ask them in to his room, seat
each sailor on the table. Quick check
then set to work, probe, mend, amputate,
medicate, bandage, eradicate.
Their breath stinking of rum and rot.
Their talk of storms, endless seas, loss.
Some arrived wearing death’s ragged coat,
he’d refuse their pay. Peer, pry, then lie,
ply with more whisky and send off with a pat.
Heidi Seaborn
This poem initially was about pirates. I then started researching the history of ship and shore doctors during the great sailing ship era. That learning took me to redraft this poem in this form and to epigraph it to a doctor I discovered along the way. It appeared in the 2017 edition of Freshwater Literary Journal.