New chapbook! Cactus Press in Montreal has brought out my collection of "kindnesses" - if you're interested in a copy, get in touch.

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I've been writing a poem every day for twenty years. Not necessarily a good poem, or even a finished poem, but simply a poem of some kind--an observed moment, a short lyric, a language challenge, a haiku, an overheard comment that riffs into something else--the daily poem can be anything, really. The writing-every-day started when I was working as a journalist; there was so much going on, so much to write about that wasn't going into work & articles, and I didn't want to lose the momentary experiences & amazing stories I heard.

 

I write the short daily poems longhand, then type them up every month or so to start recrafting them. As a result, most of my poems are heavily reworked over time, stretched, rearranged, then pared down again. I'm a fast writer for the daily poems, but slow as molasses in the actual finishing of poems.

 

Despite my short daily work, I really prefer the long form: I generally write long lines & long poems, much to the despair of anyone trying to lay the poems out on the page (sorry, every editor I have ever had, truly I am not trying to thwart you.) 

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This chapbook is a special creature to me because the poems are relatively short, all different riffs about kindness. The pieces were written over the past five years: I'd write a version, then tinker around with the poem, read it to friends or at an open mic, then rewrite it. I want the poems to be cracks in the surface of our aggressively alienating world.