Poetry Collections

I began writing poetry at a very young age. My basic premise always has been that poetry should not have to be “interpreted” to be understood. That’s a haughty and foolish notion. Novelists and short fiction writers aren’t haughty enough to claim the reader should have to interpret their works in order to understand them, and neither should poets. Only false poets, those who make the claim but are not able to apply the craft, depend on such crutches. On the other hand, apparently I’m doing something right. I’m fortunate that my poetry has been nominated for several major awards, including the National Book Award in 2006.

If you would like to sample my poetry, click the Selected Poems cover below to download a PDF copy of that book. When the new window opens, in the upper left corner click File and then Save Page As and save it to your desktop. You can read it at your leisure. Enjoy.

Beyond the Masks 180 Lessons_180 Intimate 180 Selected 180 Residua 180