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I am honored to have two poems included in the upcoming anthology Crossing Lines now available for pre-order through Main Street Rag. The anthology is being offered at a discounted price now, so if you are interested, don't wait to make your purchase!
Synopsis Physical, cultural, emotional: the stories, poems, and essays in this collection cross almost every line imaginable. In the varied terrains of a Malaysian beach, a Parisian apartment, a Czech bar, and the cities, trailer parks, and backyards of America, people find themselves against the divides of family, race, friendship, and desire. These are not hapless victims. Circumstances challenge their beliefs and require them to act: A homicide detective stumbles into an ethical quagmire. A tsunami survivor chooses reinvention over redemption. A returning soldier confronts PTSD. Youngsters teeter on the border of sexual innocence and sexual experience. Lovers face equal parts of possibility and uncertainty. With grace and skill, award-winning poets and writers make a persuasive case that when the world around you shifts, the best thing to do is to start moving. I am pleased to be included in the final issue of Outside In Travel & Literary Magazine. The poem published here is very dear to my heart, and will be included in my chapbook due out early next year. I am also grateful the magazine has included a photograph of mine from my time abroad in Prague to accompany the poem.
For those of you unfamiliar, a sestina is a particular type of poem dating back to the 12th century that follows a strict formal pattern. In crafting a sestina, the poet chooses six words, called telutons. These words appear at the end of each line in the first stanza, and they repeat as end words throughout the poem for six, six-line stanzas. The poem concludes with a stanza, called an envoi, of just two lines in which all six words appear again. The pattern is typically as follows: 1. ABCDEF 2. FAEBDC 3. CFDABE 4. ECBFAD 5. DEACFB 6. BDFECA 7. (envoi) BED CFA In some modern sestinas, poets may bend the rules just slightly by using homonyms, as you'll see in my poem with the substitution of "our" for "hour" or my use of "less" in compound words such as "aimless" and "soundless." While I am generally not a formal poet, sestinas are a form that has fascinated me for years. I find it an enjoyable challenge, and in a pile of disastrous attempts, I have produced a few sestinas I am proud of this. "Astronomical Sestina" is the greatest of them, and I am glad it has found a home. Enjoy! :) I am pleased to announce the upcoming publication of my debut chapbook from Finishing Line Press. Titled Prague in Synthetics, this collection of poems stems from my experiences studying abroad on Western Michigan University's Prague Summer Program. I believe the definitions of the word "synthetic" best indicate the focus of these poems:
Copies will be available for pre-order beginning October 27, and the anticipated publication date is February 6, 2015. More details on how to order your copy coming soon!
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April 2020
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Professor. Poet. Percussionist.