Poem
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Father’s Day 2024 found me back in Wolf Creek after a wonderful meal with my family hosted by my son and daughter-in-law. What a wonderful slow day! The gift of summer. Although I went upstairs after my three-hour sojourn in the stream to write the final song of my constellation series (Aries has been quite…
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In honor of all the graduates around the world, I present this piece originally written in 2019 as part of my series of The Guardian Photo of the Day poems. I was never completely content with what I initially wrote, so I went back to the conclusion and tweaked things to better incorporate both the…
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I would have loved to share the thirty second clip I took of Wolf Creek panning from the dam in the image above down through the smaller dams my sons and I created, on to the waters that slow as they pass the tire swing so you could more fully experience the sight and soundscape…
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Today, at the persistent urging of my AP students, I took them outside to the courtyard to debate which poem of our Poetry “March” Madness showdown should stand as the piece that best captures the complexity of the human condition. It came down to “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo (which I shared…
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Amid the blurring pace of life racing towards the finish line of another school year, I came upon this unpublished The Guardian Photo of the Day poem I composed back in 2019. I agree with T. S. Eliot: “April is the cruellest month,” with weekly timed essays to grade in AP English, final speeches to…
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In celebration of April Fools’ Day, I’m pulling out one of the few remaining Photo of the Day poems I wrote back in 2019, inspired by the best photographs on The Guardian‘s website. Back on February 13th, the image above led me into a whimsical (and clearly immature) reflection on collecting stool samples. Rather than…
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Between wrapping up the third marking period at school, putting all my creative energies into finishing my series of fifteen constellation songs (TWO TO GO!), and the busyness of Spring with speech and debate tournaments, announcing baseball games, and the seasonal “to do” list, I figured I would benefit from a stroll down memory lane…
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According to the calendar, Spring has arrived. Yet the snow today in Western Pennsylvania cast doubts on the accuracy of the vernal equinox. And rather than enjoy an afternoon walk in the “vernal wood” of William Wordsworth’s vision (remember, it was snowing here, windy, and no warmer than 42 degrees Fahrenheit according to the highly…
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In this Lenten season, I have turned once again to The Word in the Wilderness: A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter by Malcolm Guite. Like the old adage goes, “A poem a day keeps the doctor away!” (Or something along those lines.) For me, Guite’s collection provides refreshing oases to rest throughout the…
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Just the other night I thought to myself, “I haven’t seen a post from Vova Zinger in awhile.” I wondered if I had been kicked off his email notifications or if something else had happened. I came upon his photography a few years ago shortly after I started the deepening ground and I looked forward…
the deepening ground 