SPOTLIGHT -
Black Weariness
"I shall forget civilization, I shall forget color, caste, I shall move in a fantastic world of raceless men and women..."
"The Garden of Eden"
"rescued from the filth of paradise, hosed off, shining, my cracked fingernails caked with dirt."
The Diameter of the Bomb
"The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded."
Shirt
"The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters. Printed in black on neckband and tail. The shape, the label, the labor, the color, the shade. The shirt."
The Aim Was Song
"It was word and note, The wind the wind had meant to be—A little through the lips and throat. The aim was song—the wind could see."
Good Fathers
"We were three men alone in a ward room built for fifty, dust film on the floor..."
Hymn to Church Basements
"But where are the songs of praise for church basements? That lower level, that rock bottom room sunken & reverent with flickering lights..."
"Good Fathers"
Teaching Rounds
"In the corridor, he demands a confession: Who peeled back his bandage? Who let him look?"
On the Train From Kyiv to Chelm, October 28th, 2023
"Soon the train will stop. The border guard will give me back my passport – but I know we’ll be back again soon."
The Illumination
"As we enter the old hilltown graveyard, stone rows rise toward the church like a long flight of stillness..."
Have You Prayed?
"I’m never finished answering to the dead."
"Teaching Rounds"
Famous
"The river is famous to the fish..."
'Lay Down Sally'
"He's dying on dialysis—I’ve known him since my first days as a doctor, and now he wants to quit."
"Lay Down Sally"
"He’s dying on dialysis—I’ve known him since my first days as a doctor, and now he wants to quit..."
The Snow Man
"For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."
The Second Coming
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear
"Spray the perfume of your smiles on the incision. Inject the song of life into my veins to wake me up. Gently beat the drum so my mind may dance with yours, my doctor, day and night."
'The One'
"...my eyes searching for the one skater in every crowd who glides graceful as a god, like my father years ago in his black leather racing skates..."
"The One"
"A hundred skaters in Christmas red circle the lake..."
Midnight
"My black cat sprints through the kitchen door, a glassy-eyed cottontail hanging limp from his jaws."
"Thank You"
"Walk through the garden's dormant splendor. Say only, thank you."
Love After Love
"You will love again the stranger who was your self."
"How JFK Killed My Father"
"Hat factories closed quiet as prayer books, and loss lingered in my father’s guts like unswept garbage after a big parade..."
Perhaps the World Ends Here
"Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite."
How JFK Killed My Father
"It was a time when men wore fedoras banded on the crown, each band with a feather tucked into a bow, and inside, sweat bands carved from calf skins with their sweet smell of animal and earth."
I Knew a Woman
"Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, Or English poets who grew up on Greek (I’d have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek)."
Positively Haiku: Illustrated Affirmations in 17 Syllables
This book offers positivity via a unique form of poetry.
Land Ho
"I know I have the blood of survivors coursing through my veins; I know the lament of our loss must warm us again and again down in the belly of the whale..."