Leftover after everything's been said, shared, savored... Just flip the tape over and play the rest of what I never said now that I'm gone. A clever pun on being "besides" and cassette B-sides.
Day 27: Suicide by Sonnet – When Depression Writes in Iambic Pentameter
Oh God, oh Sun, oh servant Christian man, why dare you me, bid me rise when I am blind... A Shakespearean sonnet that let the poem contemplate what I couldn't, written during my first bout with depression.
Day 26: My Mind in a Tanning Bed – Counting Life in Eight Minutes
Count in the seconds, the minutes, they climb... Twenty-five; a quarter of a century, a third of a life, and I am twenty-six. Foomp. Lights out. A stream-of-consciousness countdown crafted in a tanning bed.
Day 25: Palm Open – Sophomore Heartbreak and Empty Hands
Palm open, hanging lonely at my side, empty, longing to entwine with fingers constant and consoling... The images are starting to fade, I can't feel your pulse. A dramatic sophomore's first heartbreak poetry.
Leaving Teaching to Write Full-Time: Is This My Midlife Crisis or My Calling?
After 16 years in the classroom, I'm not signing my teaching contract. A friend's sudden death at 44 made me realize: when do you give up safe and comfortable to do what you were created to do?
Day 24: Stillness of a Moment – A Love Song That Could Be Prayer
Will I ever recover or move beyond your face, your smile, your eyes... In the stillness of a moment with you, the scars are ever-reminding me. Recorded with Bob Cowherd—but the "you" might surprise you.
Day 23: Changing Faces – Becoming More Like My Mother
What is that face in the looking glass? It's familiar, I know, but more like you than what I remember from before... Where did you study the love you embody? A daughter seeing her mother's wisdom reflected in her own changing face.
Day 22: Barely Breathing – When Winter Winds Wake You Up
The winter winds whip in and out of my cracked screen door... So alive in spite of me. Everything I haven't touched yet, touches me, knows me if only for an instant. A dark season poem about feeling alive despite depression.
Day 21: That Street – Where I Fell in Love Over and Over
That street could tell so many stories... And each time my foot touched the pavement on that street, my heart beat once for him, twice for his touch, thrice for his kiss. A middle school memory of first love on one special street.
Day 20: Dividing the Shore – Where Blue Meets Blue
Goleta Beach in the summer of 2006... Divided by the horizon, only not so divided, where blue of water meets blue of sky – limitless. A California beach meditation on boundaries and infinity.
Writer's Growth 