SPOTLIGHT -
Pareidolia
"...But tonight I’m twenty years and two hundred leagues from the sea, her painting suddenly a family portrait—weather-beaten me in the middle with worried-window-eyes..."
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII
"I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul..."
Listening To Terry Gross
"Back in the 70’s, before I knew my own voice, I listened to yours..."
November
"... when winds spread the word and brown fields bristle like dense fur down the back of the earth..."
Tonsure
"Forever you find your father in other faces..."
Listening to Terry Gross
"Before I knew my own voice, I listened to yours while we learned our trades..."
The Zoom Reading
"...They speak in poetry. Do they know I am there, listening?"
Sea-Fever
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky..."
A Barred Owl
"The warping night air having brought the boom, Of an owl's voice into her darkened room..."
Prompts for Doctors Who Write
"Write yourself scared the first day of med school, dying to cure the world..."
Prompts (for Doctors Who Write Poetry)
Being a poet isn't a 9 to 5 job.
Nursing Home Frontline
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
Backyard Mercy
"A fruit fly fell in my fine crystal glass, half full of five-dollar wine..."
Daybreak in Alabama
"...Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist, and falling out of heaven like soft dew..."
War Stories
"I’ve told these war stories for decades, made them tales of friendship, savvy, good luck, and brotherhood’s strength..."
Beginning
"The moon drops one or two feathers into the field..."
Fraternity Paddle
A true war story is never about war...
First Grade
"Until then, every forest had wolves in it..."
Prayer/Oracion
"I want a god as my accomplice..."
A Pair of Unmatched Socks
"...couples become capable of 'cognitive feats' beyond that of a single individual."
Why Married Men Live Longer
"She takes them gently from my hands, scrunches her brow, studies their loneliness..."
Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout
"Down valley a smoke haze, Three days heat, after five days rain..."
Two Crises I Didn’t Train For
"I can still hear my patient shriek..."
Modern Medieval Artist
"While I watch the artist paint, I imagine him in the time of plague..."
Day 29
"...now i forget what day it is and still feel i’m running out of time..."
Complaint
"...Night is a room darkened for lovers..."
When the Doctor Called...
"I stood shivering in the dark kitchen, thinking about that word, ventilator..."
Eden's Stoner Chair
Reading books and journals, charting treatment plans to help patients find an Eden of their own.
What Lets Us Breathe Easier
"You’re a poet, aren’t you?"
Carpe Diem
"...So far the days keep coming. Seize the day gently as if you loved her.”