Hello, I'm happy you are here. It has been a while since I have made a post about my work of the past few years; however, you may have taken notice that I will occasionally pop into The Saloon with a few fresh lines. Today, I want to tell you about a poem I penned in 2016.

Here is asleep on a bench in it's virgin form, the first draft:

I want to tell you a bit about what's going on here. I reference T.S. Eliot because I had just begun studying him in college, and his work was changing my chemistry. The opening lines, a kind of inscription device that Eliot himself used, are taken from The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem that continues to change me, a poem I love dearly like a close friend. And in addition to the explosion of literature in my brain, I had traveled to England in the summer before beginning college classes, and there I walked the same places that many of the poets who changed my life had walked. I saw the gravesite of William Wordsworth, who famously wandered lonely as a cloud, and I agreed with most everyone there in that town that his words were worth quite a lot, upon browsing their souvenir shelves. Going away to the England I dreamed of, returning to the ordinary place I grew up, then burying myself in books which opened up worlds that resonated with the deepest parts of me -- all of this came together at one moment and became this poem. I think it is the moment I was born.

Here is asleep on a bench after a few rounds of polish:

Now, I do not believe this poem accomplishes what I feel a poem must. It is not universal. Too much possession of feeling obstructing a truth that you and I could share if I let it go. Still, each time I give it a read, each time I return to it with fresh eyes, I find the same rush of energy, the birth rush.

This is one of two poems of mine that have been included in a literary magazine. It appears in a library's collection of works published 2018, but it doesn't match either of the versions you have just read.

I continue to strive for excellence as a poet without taking any paved routes. Frankly, I don't know what I'm doing, and so much the better: I get to be free. Thanks for reading!