THE PAGE TURNER

I attended a concert by Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax—two legends, violin and piano. But as my mind wandered with the music, I spent much of the concert watching the woman who turned pages for Mr. Ax. Tall and elegant, in a gauzy black gown with long sleeves, she sat utterly composed as they played. […]

WILD ABANDON

This is a short fun poem, with a short fun backstory. I was 22 years old and working the swing shift in a factory – which influenced several other poems, too. The schedule was grueling. The base shift was 3 PM to 11:30 PM, often with an hour of overtime. I got Tuesday and Saturday […]

SPLINTER BED

A few years ago a musician asked to work with me on song lyrics. He was in college so we focused on a college love affair. He gave me images, nouns, and adjectives from his life and I built a story around two young lovers who meet, break up and live apart, and then hopefully, […]

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEMISE OF:

Sometimes everything clicks in. Sometimes it doesn’t. This poem is about a week in my life when things went wrong. I was in my early twenties. A long-term relationship ended. A paperwork slip-up led to losing my job in a factory. It was time to leave the factory, but it’s always nice to be the […]

RECURSIVE FUNCTION

A while ago, I was asked to present at a large tech conference in San Diego. At the preconference meeting the rep suggested that we open our talks with a joke, or a poem(!). I thought, “I can do that!” So I started working. Recursive functionality – where a formula references itself, like looking in […]

His fingers grazed

For about 10 years, starting in my early 40’s, I didn’t write often. I was busy and happy; starting a growing business, in a strong marriage, and creating a blended family. But I’d also lost my “voice.” I was no longer an angry young man, but wasn’t yet sure what my new poems should be. […]

A Good Fit

I like to bring together multiple sources, thoughts, and experiences for poems. A Good Fit came from three different places. The first was an experience in my twenties when, between jobs, I interviewed for an emergency replacement teaching position. The interviewer dismissed me as unserious because I showed up in corduroys and a sports coat, […]