Poetry
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Coming up to breathe at the start of a new semester is essential. Coming to The Deepening Ground to share those limited breaths, however, feels impossible. Just staying a day ahead of your students in the course material while being present in each moment for the necessary interactions, the life-giving exchanges of human-to-human, while carrying…
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Today is August 4, 2026″ – and seventy-six years ago, Ray Bradbury imagined a future full of Smart Homes, artificial intelligence, and the loss of humanity. Thirty-two years before that in 1918, struck with the horrors of World War One and the Spanish Flu Pandemic, Sara Teasdale presented her vision of a world restored, nature…
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For the first time in at least five years, my wife and I escaped for a five-day getaway to celebrate our anniversary. Our destination: Presque Isle, Pennsylvania. Our only goal: time to be quiet and enjoy the gift of one another and the beauty of creation. We were dazzled by the stones and small shells…
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Summer is in full bloom! The temperature promises to hit the 90s next week and I have put away (most of) my educational responsibilities for a season. Even the band began a two-week hiatus today after last night’s block party as we all take time to enjoy visiting family and the celebration of America’s 250th…
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Stepping out my backdoor on a typically busy Sunday morning, I was compelled to stop and listen to the varied carols of a mid-May Western Pennsylvania morning. Rather than move forward with my task of moving the car up to the road to pick up my family and load the instruments, I simply bathed in…
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Spring comes early for a twelve-year-old. No sooner had Wolf Creek thawed and warmer weather returned than my son came asking to go in the creek. A western Pennsylvania April isn’t the ideal time to return to the waters. As T. S. Eliot so aptly put it, “April is the cruellest month” (The Waste Land).…
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When a voice I respect in the AP English Literature community suggested a poem titled “Please Use AI,” I sickened with disgust. How could a teacher of literature ever make such a nefarious recommendation? I said as much to my students this morning in my British Literature class. (We’re wrapping up Beowulf and I felt…
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Here’s a short poem I worked on throughout the month of March but never got around to posting. I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like to struggle with insomnia. I’ve never had difficulty falling asleep nor have I been plagued by night thoughts. Sure, I’ve had a few nights where, in the heat of the…
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According to The Encyclopedia Britannica, Alfred, Lord Tennyson took nearly eighteen years to fully process the grief of losing his good friend Arthur Henry Hallam. We find this in his elegiac masterpiece, In Memoriam A. H. H. While it may be Tennyson’s greatest work and certainly earned him renown for its “131 sections, … prologue,…
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For over seven years, my friend and fellow writer, James, and I have met every few weeks at our local Dunkin’ to carve out an hour and a half of dedicated time to write. Admittedly, it’s not the most conducive atmosphere for creativity, but beggars can’t be choosers. I’d much rather have a local pub…
the deepening ground 