Poetry

This page serves as an online home for most of my poetry and music to date. Currently, these span from my early attempts at poetry in college to the newest of my material. So far, I've published two collections of poetry that include many of the works listed below: Roots That Crack The Concrete and Poetic Revolution.

The titles of some poems are followed by the word "More." Clicking on this word will show you further information related to that poem. I don't generally explain my poetry because I feel that art is meant to speak for itself. However, I've decided that especially in the case of 'activist' poetry, it would serve the spirit of the poem best to offer links to places where you can find out more about what inspired me.

NOTES:

General Note: I've removed any personal dedications from my poems with the exception of Julia, Friend of Luna. Why? The people who inspired these poems didn't ask me to write poetry about them, and they certainly didn't ask me to say publicly who the poems were dedicated to! I enjoy giving credit for my inspiration where credit is due because I couldn't write anything without those who inspire me. However, for the sake of their privacy, I've decided that this is not the place to share that information. I know who they are, and where I felt it was appropriate, they know who they are too. That is enough for me. If you have any thoughts or questions on the matter, please e-mail me.

• Julia, Friend of Luna - This is a poem written about Julia Butterfly Hill and her friend Luna. Julia (aka Butterfly)lived up in the branches of Luna, a majestic redwood tree,for over two years in an effort to defend her from being cutdown. To learn more about their story and any recent news, you can visit the Circle of Life Foundation website .
• Broken Bones - This poem was inspired by the time I spent in Idaho with the Cove/Mallard Coalition . In particular, it was a response to the monitoring I participated in on the Noble timber sale, which had already been clearcut and burned.
• Overshadowed - This poem was inspired by the time I spent in Idaho with the Cove/Mallard Coalition . In particular, it was inspired by the monitoring I participated in on the Otter-Wing timber sale, shortly after conducting the monitoring on Noble mentioned above.
• The Butterfly - This poem's metaphor of the butterfly as symbol of love and the hand as symbol of crushing attachment was first inspired by the work of a friend of mine, Stephen Marc Fox (aka EyeAm). His metaphor made an impression on me, and when I once again found myself in a position of love threatened by strangling fingers, I couldn't help but harken back to it.
• Esperanza Bulldozed - This is a poem I wrote about the destruction of a community garden named El Jardin de la Esperanza (The Garden of Hope) in New York City. I never got to see the garden (or its remains), but I read about the story in the Earth First! Journal and later met one of the people who was involved while studying at the Institute for Social Ecology.
  
• Salute the Flag - This poem was completed ten days after the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.
• Our First Year - This piece was written for the Professional Studies 1 Creative Arts Ceremony of Week 5 at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. It's more of a miniature play than a poem, with five parts based on the five character defense structures that we studied, a chorus who responds in a loving way to the defenses of those five characters, and a nameless student who introduces the play-poem and joins the five characters in the final chorus. If you are not familiar with the characterology that the play-poem is referring to, I invite you to read Light Emerging or Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan.