The Joy of Collaboration
A few years ago I heard from a composer who had picked up one of my books when he was in Charleston with the…
Poetry and the Enviroment
Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems to be dead in winter and later proves to be alive. From the poem…
Atsuro Riley
I recently had the privilege of introducing my friend Atsuro Riley at the South Carolina Book Festival in Columbia, SC. As South Carolina’s Poet…
Taha Muhammad Ali
I was deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of the poet Taha Muhammad Ali. He was a great spirit, and his poetry will…
The Weight It Takes
From the Post and Courier. For Nikki Randhawa Haley, on the Occasion of her inauguration as Governor of South Carolina. In the white silence…
Charleston Rooftops
Everything that lifts into the air has purpose: even the granite tipped war monument rising above palmetto trees points like an arrow toward the…
Nothing Can Contain You
From The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. In memory of David Hilderbrand. Not the wreath woven from fresh flowers, nor the photograph it…
Geography of Home
From The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Sudden winter rain a need like night camellias that morning startling a thing remembered how we…
Pine Pitch
From The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. For Jerry Smith. Clustered around the edges of my father’s open grave, the grown-ups lean into…
The Way It Should Be
From Poemeleon. After a photograph by Lauren Preller Things shouldn’t have turned turn out this way. When her husband was still alive they would…