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Next up in my series of posts documenting previously published writing, I am featuring a set of shorter poems originally published in the 2nd Edition of the Ulu Review. The Ulu Review is a relatively new publication based in Hawaii which features writing with "a mythological flair, or the type of everyday magic found in coincidences and happenstance." As a lover of mythology as well as the subtler manifestations of the magical in literature, I think this is a great focus for a literary journal to take up. I have three poems featured in the 2nd Edition, namely: "Magical Realism," "Synecdoche," and "On Chaos Theory, 'Canon Events,' and the Contingency of Being." You can read them here.

I am pleased to announce that my poem "When Lovely Words Will Not Appear," has been selected for publication in the upcoming May 2024 issue of Uppagus. As the title implies, this is a piece I wrote while dealing with a bout of writer's block. Uppagus is home to some stellar poetry, and holds a sentimental status for me as it is the first publication to accept my work. I am thrilled to be appearing there once more in the upcoming May issue. In the meantime, check out their latest, Issue 59.

For the past year or so I've been recording in my notes app any potential title that comes to mind. Now, the common wisdom dictates that titling a work should be the final step in its production, but I think working backwards from a title and imagining what such a work would be like makes for an interesting exercise. Here are a few that you may find intriguing: "My Sadness Speaks a Tongue I Never Learned" A touch of melodrama here, no doubt - fitting perhaps for a song by The Smiths. Regardless, I like the idea of self-alienation this title captures. I recently finished watching Scenes from a Marriage (both the HBO version and the cinematic cut of Bergman's original) and was struck by the episode title, "The Illiterates." The idea is that however the couple tries to "unpack" what went wrong for them, their analysis is ultimately nothing but empty noise; they have no language by which to decipher what has happened in their shared life. Although poetry generally seeks to find words for the inexpressible aspects of our inner worlds, I think it is important to recognize that it can also give voice to that very inexpressibility, as ironic as that may seem. "The Basking Rock" This puts me in mind of a coming of age tale set somewhere in the American south. Two friends share a secret hideaway, a large flat rock by a stream or creak where they can be away from their families and communities, alone together in the sun as the water burbles by. "Housekeeping in the Bardo" Full disclosure, I was thinking of George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo when I came up with this one. I have yet to read it, but hope to soon as it looks to be solidly up my alley. The "Bardo" is the liminal space between death and rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism. The so called Tibetan Book of the Dead is originally titled Bardo Thödol, which translates to "liberation in the intermediate state through hearing." It is essentially a travelers' guide to this intermediate state. By throwing in "housekeeping" I hope to imply a more lighthearted "slice of life" tone, as strange a place for a "slice of life" the Bardo may appear.

This will be the first in a series of posts highlighting my published poems. First up is "Urban Renewal," which I began composing while walking through Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood on the way to the bouldering gym. It is a part of the city in which I enjoy spending time, and I relish that my gym's location gives me such frequent occasion to do so. There are good restaurants and coffee shops to be found, along with several boutiques which are generally out of my price range but nevertheless make for good window shopping. On the day "Urban Renewal" began to take shape, I was struck by the ways in which Lawrenceville is emblematic of the history of the city, from the smog-laden steel town where Fifth Avenue's finest sourced their wealth to the marginally trendy tech and healthcare center it is today. "Urban Renewal" was first published in Issue 57 of Uppagus. Follow the link to read it. Below is a sample of the first few lines. Here you see billboards bolted onto new construction, trendy townhomes, tall and narrow; dormant smokestacks taller still: new money's retribution on the methods of the old...