Poetry

Thank for visiting my poetry page! Above are three tracks from my ongoing collaboration with drummer Dave Berger. Dave is an old friend who specializes in improvisation, and playing free. You can hear Dave in collaboration with other artists on Dinner Music for Strangers vol.1, 2, and 3; and on Attatwak!, among other recordings. These three recordings represent the direction we are going regarding rhythm and subject matter, which tends to be my inquiries into the cognitive dissonances required by late-stage American capitalism. Some of these have found their way into the new absurdist zine Free$5, I recommend you check out. Also, I still write cat poems. Subscribe here for more audio tracks, we have around a dozen close to done with this round of sessions, and I will be posting them here.

Where can you find my poetry out in the world? If you are in Seattle, or on instagram, look up @ambrosiazine, a local zine hosting readings and a quarterly publication that has featured a number of my poems for the past year or so. Online, @suburbanwitchcraftmagazine has also featured a number of my poems for the past two or three years now, in an international, seasonal collection of poetry and art. More recently, my poetry concerning feelings around the rise of fascism have found their way into the above-mentioned zine, Free$5.

Below is a synopsis of my Little Free Chapbook series, which I produced and distributed from 2022-2024:

Inspired by a certain tuxedo kitty, Her Majesty Waits and Waits and Waits, consists of three poems suitable for kitty lovers of all ages, with illustrations by yours truly. Many thanks to the editors of Seattle’s Ambrosia Zine for including the title poem and We Clean After We Eat in their Animal issue this past autumn, 2023. Like the rest of my Little Free Chapbooks, it was distributed from me directly, or found in a Seattle Little Free Library.

Here in the PNW we have something called spider season, it begins about when autumn begins, and without giving anything else away, this Little Free Chapbook is inspired by spider season. Perhaps It Crawls Inside, features a spider by good friend Glenn, that’s with two n’s. My own partner still won’t let me finish reciting it aloud, calling it too creepy. Sounds just right!

An Aubergine Ending was my prior Little Free Chapbook, and it’s a poem about my witchy partner and spooky household. It features corvids and the acknowledgment of our own mortality; and it’s also fun to read aloud as you are feeding your own pets. Again, thanks to the editors of Ambrosia Zine for including this poem in their Love issue.

Ninja Will Eat Me, two poems about Her Majesty, and her incredible patience with the world. This is number one in the Little Free Chapbook series. Best read aloud to friends. The eponymous poem, “Ninja Will Eat Me”, was first published in the journal, Punk Noir. I’ve distributed over 200 copies of this chapbook.

A Failure of Imagination, my now annual protest by poem concerning the January 6 Insurrection, and the Grand Old Party’s incredible impatience with the world. It’s meant to be screamed aloud and partly sung.

To the Young Woman With the Bee in Her Hand was the third chapbook in my series, it’s a poem I wrote for my daughter concerned with home, and saying hello, and saying goodbye. A version of this poem was published by Cathexis Northwest Press. It’s meant to be whispered widely like a sustained breeze.

I’ve given away many Little Free Chapbooks, and I’ve collected a handful of donations in trade for which I’m quite grateful. Have you found one out in the Seattle wilds? Have I given you one in person? Please let me know where, and what you think, by commenting below. Or, scroll down and click on Poetry to read some more current poems right now.