Tag Archives: poetry

March 30, 2026 · 2:50 pm

Walk in My Shoes

On Aug 17, 2025, I got a new pair of shoes for walking.

I had an idea to wear them only for walking and to record my steps after each walk. I was going to try to make it a year, but due to different circumstances, I made it to the end of this month, 8 months total. 

I walked a total of 549051 steps… 245 miles.

We all know the idiom, “Walk a mile in their / my shoes” as a reference to understanding someone. I took notes sometimes after a walk. During these last 8 months, I had a colleague lose two of their grandchildren in a car accident. My oldest son got married. I walked on Halloween but didn’t get to walk with my youngest daughter on her last trick-or-treat trip, she was at a friend’s house. 

I walked through hundreds of grasshoppers in August. I walked in the school on nights when my daughter had musical practice. I walked on a 65 degree day in February. I took notes for poems, some that are still notes. I walked on Christmas day, reflecting on family and how time was moving so fast.

The miles simply represent my life, as they would for you.

As I totaled the steps, I noticed something interesting. No matter what the day, or the route I took (I have a couple of routes I walk in the neighborhood), no day ever had the same number of steps. Ever.

So no matter how many times I took my ‘medium route’ in the neighborhood, the step count was different.

I understand there are a number of reasons for the differences, but that proves the point that even in the routine of our life, each day is different. Has a different step count because of the smallest changes to how we walked through the day. How we lived that day.

Maybe to understand ourselves better we should pay attention to how we walk in our own shoes.

And so my idea for this blog post comes to an end as I transfer the shoes to work shoes.

But, I did get a new pair of walking shoes… 

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March 26, 2026 · 11:41 am

Did You Notice?

Let’s see if I can express myself well in this blog post. I know as I sit down to write this that I will be challenged in my ability to express this abstract experience with this page and the words I choose to express myself with.

Let’s start with the idea of connecting dots. Faithful readers know I use this idea a lot. But it helps make connections to ideas or moments, even when they seem random.

Dot One

Did you notice? 

Did you notice I was not there on social media, especially X? It is OK if you didn’t. I’m not sure anyone really did. My screen time is averaging 2 hours and 50 minutes a day for the last couple of weeks (at the end of this week it should be about 2 hours and 40 minutes).

At the moment, X is my 8th used app. It is even behind my Clock app. I did not disappear, I reposted, shared some info, but I didn’t really engage with people or share original content. And X went on without me.

Dot Two

Why I reduced my interaction with my phone and social media.

This is one of the tricky parts I alluded to in the introduction. I was hurt because of poetry. Rejection emails, poetry battles, and the loss of community hit my spirit hard. Every creative person goes through rough spots, the last three weeks have been brutal for me, in so many different ways. Emotionally it was like standing in the middle of a downpour as a blizzard swept in while an earthquake happened.

Dot Three

What did I gain from the last two weeks?

New Poetry. Ironic isn’t it. 

I also gained an appreciation for my voice, for my style. It sounds funny to say this at this stage of my writing career, but I am always reminded of something Ray Radbury said in an interview late in his career. He said it took him 10 years to finally write a short story that he felt reflected his authentic voice.

I may not be popular, but no one writes like I do. 

And I will keep trying to share my work, knowing that my email folder will be filled with rejection responses because that’s what we do, we create and share with the world.

Dot Four

What I really gained from the last two weeks…

The depth and quality of our life is found in how engaged we are in our own lives.

I read the article “The Lonely Death of George Bell” from the New York Times in 2015. (It is behind a paywall now.) It haunts me to this day. The quick summary of the article is that George dies in his apartment alone, and it took weeks before anyone noticed enough to investigate. Even his drinking buddies, whom he saw only at the bar, did not do anything when he stopped showing up. 

We all get 24 hours in a day. And we, for the most part, get to decide what we do with that time. I’ve talked about this idea in different blog posts for years and connected to different topics. The small shift in understanding from the last two weeks is that how we engage with that time matters.

I didn’t stop living just because I was not on X. Dadlife has been in full swing, daughters are in tennis, and my third daughter was also in the school musical. I took my walks. I wrote poetry.

Twenty-four hours can go by without us doing anything, even if we are on a screen or not. Being aware, but even more importantly, choosing what and who to engage with builds the textures of our life. Gives us the colors, the heartache, and the words to live a life we can call art.

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January 4, 2026 · 5:09 pm

There will come a time

I am going to just warn you now, this post will ramble but try to connect the dots at the end.

I just finished my walk about 20 minutes ago. And I thought about a lot of things, had a lot of dots on the paper of my mind. But let’s start in the middle of my walk.

There is a small cemetery, Sunset Memorial Gardens, that I walk past on one of my routes through my neighborhood. Sometimes, I stop to sit and reflect. Today was one of those days. As I sat down on a bench the “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” started to play in my earbuds. St. Elmo’s Fire is one of my favorite movies, so it got me thinking.

I took a couple of pictures to share on social media. I tend to take unique pictures on my walk just to share. While I was taking the photos I noticed that there were two fresh mounds of dirt. One of the grave sites did not have a date on the tombstone, but the second one did.

This is when the dots filled my head.

Here I was standing by her grave on January 4, 2026. Janice was just days away from the New Year when she passed away.

I, we all do to a degree, take time for granted. I have a specific pair of shoes I use for my walks. I am in the middle of logging the steps I take on my walks in these shoes for a blog post when I get new shoes.

I am assuming I will be here in 6 months. That I will be able to walk, to listen to music, to think, and write poetry.

For my faithful readers, you know that I’ve learned 6 months can change everything (A Tweet about a Death Goes Viral).

As I continued on my walk I was deep in thought about life. A poetic line came to mind, “There will come a time…” (I’ll share the poem later in the blog).

Thinking about the poem led me to something that has been heavy on my heart lately… about how much I have failed in accomplishing my big dreams. I let myself down all the time. I have books I want to write. I want to learn to play the piano (or at least write this song I have). I want to help people write better (this is an idea in the works).

But instead… I fail.

Like all of us, life tricks us into believing there is time. And the trick is that there is time… until there isn’t. And we don’t know when that time will end.

On the home stretch of my walk, I spotted an older couple walking their dogs on the golf course, at times holding hands waiting for their second dog to catch up.

It was a beautiful site and reminded me that no one knows how much time they will have. But we are all given a life. And we do get to decide on how we live it. Failing at dreams, walking on a 60 degree January day, or making it home to be a dad…when I got home my second daughter needed help getting her boomerang (she got for Christmas) down from the roof of the house.

Some dreams are so big they have to be accomplished everyday.

Ohhh, yeah, I wrote this poem while walking too. This is the draft from my notes. The final poem will be worked on later.

“There will come a time”

There will come a time

Because of a dead watch

When I will stop moving

My hands across my face 

To check how well I shaved

To start a new day

There will come a time

Because of the sunset

That I will be encased in darkness

Like Orion

Dreams stuck in position

Of a constellation of the past 

There will come a time

Because of the last page

That I will no longer

Be able to write

A single word of a poem

Or love letter for her to read

There will come a time

Because of the rules of LIFE

I will reach the end

Have no more turns to spin the wheel

Get an action card

Have a pet

Or fill my little green car

With people I love

One last thing, here is the song that played as I came home.

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December 31, 2025 · 8:19 pm

2026 Word

Next year starts 2026. As we have done since 2015,each member of the family chooses one word for the next year. We each share the reason behind the word, and then design our display. This year we are using small wooden clipboards. 

As you can see from the picture my word is MAGIC. 

There are a number of reasons behind my choice for the word. I want to create more magical moments, which I tried to do this Christmas, actually, when Santa visited our house for everyone. There were 8 filled stockings under the tree (my six children and my new daughter-in-law and my son’s longtime girlfriend). And yes, Santa visited my wife, even if she didn’t get a stocking, she had presents under the tree.

But to have magical moments I have to be active as a father, a husband, and even as a poet. Magic doesn’t happen staring at a screen. It happens when my children laugh, my wife smiles, someone replies to a poem I wrote. 

I have some really big goals this year. Accomplishing them will be magical. Jon Finch once said, “Magic is the poetry of impossibilities, each trick a stanza in the verse of wonder.” And I am a good poet.

Here is to a magical 2026.

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December 22, 2025 · 9:00 pm

Christmas Letter 2025

Well, it was 60 degrees today. Only a few days away from Christmas, and I was walking in shorts this afternoon. My youngest daughter said it shouldn’t feel like spring right now.

But it does feel like Christmas for me… Everyone, plus significant others, will be home for Christmas morning. And mom and I have decided that Santa is coming for everyone this year. That means stockings and everything. I can’t wait!

But that is in a few days, there were a number of cool days in 2025.

One of the best days from this last year was seeing The Outsiders musical with my wife and three younger daughters. I wondered how they would make such an iconic book into a musical. I was impressed, and even teared up at different times during the performance. 

Speaking of music, my Spotify top 100 songs were a mix of classic and more modern music. My number one song was Dermot Kennedy’s “Moments Passed” and in conjunction with the blog post, “Song Number 25”, my 25th song was “Overrated” by Thriving Ivory. 

The coolest musical events though came from two interviews Dante and I conducted for our podcast, The Creative Moment. We had the honor of interviewing Rascal Martinez and Chris Glover, known as Penguin Prison. It was fun learning about how the muse works in the musical world.

But we didn’t just interview musicians, we talked to LMDesign8, a virtual and real world artist, and Konn Lavery, an author that writes horror novels and stories.

In a few months we will host our 100th episode! Stay tuned for that milestone.

On a personal note, I recently released a new collection of poetry, Life in Poetic Form. And released an audio poetry EP, Open Mic, which is available on all streaming services. Even though I had over 10 major rejections for my writing, not just poetry this year, I believe that my writing can make an impact for others. So, I write…

I am finishing up two books during break. I will then meet my goal of 60 books this year! One of my biggest surprises was the two volumes of the graphic novel, Starve. The series was written in 2016, but I came across the first collection in a book store. Then I ordered the second volume because I loved the story. This is the wonder of books, the timelessness of a story in physical form. The power of browsing a book store. The slight chance of finding a story that brings wonder and joy into your life.

This year also reinforced that magic of recommendations. Of the connection people build by suggesting a book they love to someone else. I read the book, Stoner, by John Williams, because it was recommended to me by a Twitter (I know its X…) friend. We talked about the book on X as I read it. I loved the book. Again, the power of books / stories to build connections in this world.

I’m not sure what 2026 will bring. How many rejections I will read. How many blog posts I will write. What new music I will hear, or new stories I will read. 

But I know I will continue to try to build connections, to share poetry, and to let love lead me through the next 365 days.

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June 13, 2025 · 12:39 pm

I Untie My Shoes

For the last couple of months, I have been untying my shoes when I take them off. Yes, that means I have to tie them when I put them on.

Yesterday I spent almost an hour trying to find the right word for a poem. A single word. I was working with meaning and syllable count for that word, but still, I spent time finding the right word.

My screen time is down almost 15%.

Over the last 11 weeks my steps have jumped up over 3,000 more steps a day.

I’ve heard the quote, “How you do one thing is how you do everything,” used in movies and TV shows lately. 

Each day we have 24 hours. Everyone. 

How we use it is the fundamental factor to the quality of our lives. Even when bad things happen, or unexpected challenges, it is our responsibility to decide how we deal with the time we are given.

I have decided to untie my shoes when I take them off.

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June 4, 2025 · 11:21 am

PAD 2025: Poem 5

On day two Robert challenged us to write a poem “from where I am sitting.” The idea was to pay attention to the world around us. My poem stays true to the heart of the prompt, but was written during a walk.

“After the Rain has Stopped”

I am walking 

after the rain has stopped.

Mix of earth and evening

sits heavy in my lungs.

Grey clouds fading back to white

releasing the gloom

of the day. 

The sun’s last rays

play with the mosaic blues

above me.

A painting even Michelangelo

would sign his name to.

The promise of spring

tickles my nose

and my heart moves to the

music of the birds

perched in the trees,

as if they are God’s choir.

This street morphing

into an aisle between

the pews of hope

and wonder.

–

I am walking 

after the rain has stopped.

Finding myself

In the middle

of a sacred liturgy.

There are a number of reasons I wanted to discuss the creative process of this poem.

First, nature is a powerful source of inspiration. Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, and so many others have drawn inspiration from nature. Be it from walks (even Stephen King walks) or quiet moments in nature. Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is an example of how deep a moment in nature can be.

If you feel like you have writer’s block, I suggest taking a walk in the park with the focus paying attention to the world around you, like the prompt for the poem. You will be inspired.

Second, I will be honest here… the idea of this poem was actually written the night before the prompt. My Notes app is filled with poetic lines, random thoughts, and even full first drafts of works. As life aligns sometimes, it was a perfect fit for the challenge. I reworked the draft from the app, even thought of using the viator poetic form for the final draft, but liked the free verse flow of the descriptions. 

But here is the important point, being able to draw on ideas from notes or drafts. Besides my app, I keep notes, write single lines, and even draw drafts of ideas on any paper I can find when inspiration hits.  At this moment, I have a single line in my Notes app that I can’t get out of my mind, but I haven’t been able to cross that inspirational bridge to create something yet.  That is cool, and yes, frustrating. But I am excited for that moment when the line becomes more.

The third aspect is the use of imagery to bring forth the theme of the spiritual feeling I had during the walk. The use of literary elements is the art of poetry, of writing. Literary elements allow us to describe all the abstract feelings we have as humans and allow us to share those feelings with others in a way they can relate to. That is the bridge art builds for us. To connect us. To reveal the powerful aspect of this life. We are never alone in our emotions, both positive or negative.

I hope you enjoyed this small series of my creative process for a few of the poems I wrote for the Poetry a Day challenge.  Share your process or thoughts in the comment section.

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June 2, 2025 · 8:56 pm

PAD 2025: Poem 4

One of the most creative poetic forms is the nonce. Which is a poetic form the poet designs for a specific poem. The poet decides the rules for a poem. On day 20 the prompt was rest. I had a line start in my head, “In the stillness of love.” 

And I wrote this poem. I am using the photo option because I couldn’t figure out how to get WordPress to keep the line breaks correct.

The idea of the rules came to me as I started the first draft. The first rule was that I would use a descriptive word followed by a simile. Through the edits, I had to work with both the descriptive word and a creative simile to match it. The third stanza went through a ton of revisions.

As I rewrote my ideas, I noticed that I had unintentionally used alliteration in the first stanza. So, I added that as a rule, and had to rework the second and third stanza again. I didn’t want the alliteration to be overbearing, but wanted it to be clear as the descriptive word was introduced in the second line.

I also went with the imagery of my hands in a type of prayer. Again, this idea came from the first stanza. Which happens sometimes, the base idea is easily transcribed on the page, then the poem is constructed from there. Honestly, the first stanza is almost as is. It is the example of the power of the muse. The other two stanzas took work.

I also like using line breaks and spaces in my more free form poems. It is something I did when I was a younger poet. I like how spaces and tabs can create flow, tells the reader to breathe. As I reworked the poem, the line breaks started to materialize as I scribbled on my yellow legal pad. But the final rules for the look was cemented when I transferred the poem to a Google doc. I could firmly set the rule for spaces and see how it moved on the page.

Because of the challenge of writing and posting a poem in a day, I went with the ending as I wrote it. I am unsure of the ending at the moment. I may revise it later, but the poem is presented here as it was written for that day. 

Have you ever designed your own rules for a poem? Share your experience in the comment section.

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May 31, 2025 · 4:46 pm

PAD 2025: Poem 3

On day three of the PAD challenge Robert asked us to write a short poem. Nothing longer than 10 lines. Now, there are quite a number of short poetic forms, Robert provided a few in the overview of the prompt for the day. Creating a poem in a few lines, and with the presented rules of a particular form can stretch one’s creative mind.

Throughout the month I wrote some short poems because of how the prompt inspired me. For day three I specifically wanted to use a poetic form. Without any idea for the poem, I decided to write a Shadorma. I like this poetic form (you can expand the poem by making stanzas from the guidelines).

But I had no theme or prompt word to go with it. So, I had a different hurdle to overcome. Here is the poem I wrote that day. I will discuss how I got the idea afterwards.

My heart is

a candle whose flame –

surrounded

by darkness –

jumps and sparks trying to keep

the light from fading.

Writing in poetic forms has a built-in challenge. Meshing my ideas within the rules of a form can take days, even weeks for me to accomplish. Throw in a short poetic form, and write it in a day for the PAD challenge and I sat there drinking my coffee with my head spinning.

With or without a poetic form, short poetry is not easy. The theme and intensity of an idea has to come through in just a few words or lines. And it has to hit the reader, hard. At least I think it does. Short poetry should be like drinking a shot, full flavor that then sits warm in the reader’s mind.

The idea for this poem started with the candle that sat on our island. We tend to keep a candle on the island that we light at the end of the day. Just a part of our family routine. I noticed the burnt wick, dark and frayed. Then, I started to consider how bad the year had been. I then considered the sayings about a single light against the darkness. In my mind I saw a candle in the middle of darkness, how small the light was. I thought about how fast the darkness would be complete if the fire on the wick sputtered and went out.

I had my idea. 

I used my lunch period to work through the poem. I started with the metaphor, “My heart is a candle…”  I actually had to work line 3 and 4 through a few different versions. These lines are only three syllables long. I wanted the tension of the darkness surrounding the flame to come through, to have that tone of sadness to hit and stay throughout the poem.

Here is where punctuation makes a difference in the poem. I could have used commas. But the emdash created the tone I wanted for the weight of the darkness. I then continued with the imagery of the flame that was fighting to stay alive.

Writing this poem encompassed the importance of punctuation, the challenge of short poetry, and how everyday objects, the candle on the island, can be the spark for inspiration. I think the poem also reinforces the power of writing in a poetic form, it can make you really delve into word choice, theme, and expression that you might not normally do.

Let me know what you think of the poem, or of any of the ideas I discuss in this post. Share your thoughts in the comment section.

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May 30, 2025 · 9:06 am

PAD 2025: Poem 2

Robert Lee Brewer has some favorite prompts he uses for the PAD challenge. One of them is the BLANK prompt. Robert gives a word and the filler BLANK with it. As poets we are supposed to use it as the title of the poem. This poem was written for the prompt, New (Blank).

“New Hands”

I wish I had new hands.

These do not write great poetry

or handle precious things properly.

–

My hands are callous and scarred

from traveling too far 

from other hands

that only wanted

to know

I would never let them go.

–

These hands have broken 

bread with no intention

of keeping

the promises set

at a table

I was invited to

but no longer 

have a seat at.

–

I wish I had new hands.

These ache

with the weight

of carrying

the expectation

of caring 

for a family tree

I’ve never enjoyed 

the shade of.

I planted my own sapling

in soil I created

by breaking the stones

that held generational sins.

–

I wish I had new hands.

These are pale

from years spent in darkness,

fighting against the scales

Fate used in measuring

my worth.

No matter what I paid,

what dreams I placed 

on the plate,

it never balanced

my life’s fulcrum

because Fate

kept its thumb

on the plot

I thought I was writing.

–

I wish I had new hands.

These are failing

in doing the work

of living a life

worth holding on to.

Poetic Form: Spoken Word

I sat with the idea for this poem for a while because of doubt. I am not sure what triggered the idea of having new hands, might have been just noticing my hand as I drank my coffee, but I was unsure of the idea. The idea of replacing my hands simply seemed unrealistic.

The line, “I wish I had new hands” just kept running through my head. I considered some poetic forms that use a refrain for the idea. Poetic forms like the quatern, the dansa, and the kyrielle. But as I wrote down a few lines, the forms didn’t feel right.

I actually tried to come up with some new ideas for the prompt, like “A New Day”, “New Words”, and some other ideas written on a post-it note. But I couldn’t shake the idea of new hands. I couldn’t shake the doubt either.

In fact you can read the doubt in the first stanza. 

I’ve learned over the years to trust the muse more than doubt. It is hard, but once I take the first steps into the idea my creativity takes the wheel. Besides a few edits, this poem is as it was written on the yellow legal pad I used for writing during the PAD challenge. I wanted to write in longhand for each first draft during the challenge.

I also stayed with the more negative idea of why I needed new hands. But kept the idea of a refrain to start each section that dealt with the reason for why my hands were falling. I also focused on how the poem sounded as if I was at a poetry slam. That is why there is inconsistent rhyming, alliterations, and different line breaks.  I do hope to use this poem in a poetry slam this summer.

The writing of “New Hands” highlights the battle I face sometimes between doubt and the idea the muse gives to me. 

Please feel free to share how you deal with doubt in the comment section.

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