Finding Myself in Nashville’s Thriving Poetry Scene

This year, I celebrated International Woman’s Day (Sat., March 8, 2014) by stepping outside my comfort zone and returning to the stage to bear my soul to the world. I discovered my first open mic night in Nashville, TN—Poetry in the Brew, held every second Saturday at the Portland Brew East coffee shop in East…

Crooked Crag Bridge (A Poem)

Crooked crag bridge smothered in smoke stack attic space chimney tops coughing up dust firelight folk stories and urban myths from burnt-out metal trash cans reaching to the man on the moon who turns his face from this patron of the night stepped on by the soles of the hungry alone in the coal-black eve…

Of a Mockingbird (A Poem)

Of a mockingbird, Mary Oliver writes— for a thousand mornings it flutters about, stealing songs of neighboring birds, and brakes squealing to drown its mockery. This beautiful tiny jester sings avian karaoke on a post just off the porch, hovering, twirling twice, its dance cylindrical, then lowering like a helicopter or a slow balloon losing…

Love is… (A Poem)

Love is a religion. We pray to it. We worship it. We loathe it. We fear it. We don’t understand it. We run from it. We run to it. We wash ourselves clean of it, and we make our sheets red with it. It is truth. It is honor. It is purity. It is pain.…