Two poems in Neologism Poetry Journal

I submitted to Neologism in June of 2023. The editor accepted two of the three poems i sent, but asked if he could keep them for the Spring 2024 issue. I said yes, happy to be accepted and happy that he wanted two.

When the issue was released, i discovered that i was named as the featured poet, an honor i had not anticipated. I was particularly glad to have won this honor with two poems about making women come. It feels like winning twice, you know?

I workshopped the pomegranate poem at my Christian MFA program. Everyone in my workshop group agreed that it seemed very sexy, but they couldn’t quite identify why. See if you can.

https://www.neologismpoetry.com/April-2024/

Three poems in Sky Island Journal

I have been submitting to Sky Island since 2021. Every year, i send them another packet, and every year, they say the same thing: “We love your work! No thank you this time, though. Send us something else next year!”

But this year, we finally clicked. Of the four poems i sent them, they took three, and two of them are two of the poems i am most proud to have written.

I am so pleased and proud to share this publication with you now.

https://www.skyislandjournal.com/issues#/issue-28-spring-2024/

one poem in Beaver Magazine

this poem is part of my series about things that are berries and things that are not. botanically speaking, many of the fruits that we call “berry” (like strawberry, raspberry, etc.) are not berries. additionally, many fruits that we often think of alongside of berries, things that might show up in a mixed berry smoothie or on a shelf of fruit preserves next to the jars of berry preserves, are also not berries. conversely, many fruits that we do not think of as berries (and many fruits that we think of as vegetables) are technically classified as berries.

so far, i have about a dozen of these berry poems, with ten or so more planned. this is the first one that has gotten published. you can read it here.

one poem in an online magazine

i have a very ugly commute that i have totally fallen in love with. i walked this commute for years, burning in the summer and splashing through puddles in the winter. i have watched businesses open and close, fed crows, taken selfies in front of ivied fences, and one summer i watched Henry (a Seattle artist of some renown) paint a mural on the side of a shipping container. it remained until the day i told a friend about it and we walked there together to see it, only to find that it had been carted away somewhere.

i was very proud to have this poem appear in a special “Flâneuse” issue of StepAway Magazine, all about women walking along, moving through, living in urban environments. you can read it here.

two poems in an anthology

The first time i was ever published, the editor selected two of the three poems i submitted. (The editor is also my brother. I’m almost certain our relationship didn’t impact his decision.)

The anthology is available to order here. I can’t link to the poems themselves, but the book is beautiful and wonderful and well worth your seventeen dollars. They’re both about Mary Oliver, whose work is part of the Biblical canon, as far as i’m concerned. I think they’re both accessible if you’re not familiar with her work, but this poem is definitely helpful for “wild goose chase”.

They are both poems of faith. Specifically, they are both poems wherein i am working out my feelings on holiness, the afterlife, goodness, prayer, sainthood, and salvation.

In the first year of my MFA program, we read Dante, and during one of our discussions, the lecturer asked us who our Virgil would be. Mine is Mary Oliver. So much of what i know and believe about poetry, religion, nature, and how to be a human, i have learned through her work. I hope my own work does her justice.

Blog Post: Intro

Welcome to my website! The blog section will be updated with links to my work, and occasional short posts about what i’m working on and reading.

Enjoy!