Why subscribe?
I am a poet with heart and a deep spiritual practice. I write a poem every day, and have been for almost three years. When I post them here, they are drafts, fairly raw. My poems are generally short, and I lean toward the grateful and positive. They are accessible and easy to understand. I am most interested in impermanence, aging, disability, and awakening. Please join me and subscribe! You have full access to all my poems—always free—although you are welcome to make a contribution in support of my work.
longer bio:
I grew up on Moon Valley Lane, a dead-end street in Cincinnati, Ohio, high on a hill overlooking a bend in the Ohio River. I spent much of my childhood outdoors, roaming the woods, looking for fossils, begging to own a horse, and if not that, an Irish wolfhound. My long-held dream to become a veterinarian was squashed by my own vet (in the late 1950s) who told me bluntly that it wasn’t a job for girls.
I wrote soppy romantic poetry as a teenager and showed it to no one. Drawn to writing, I took one of the first creative writing classes offered at university. The professor, a young cocky guy, tore my first short story up, threw it in the wastepaper basket in front of the whole class, and quipped it was so bad, it didn’t even deserve comments. I didn’t write anything for twenty-seven years.
In 1992, in a freak accident, I was hit by a huge falling oak branch that nearly killed me, but also cracked me open. After major surgery, as soon as I could creep back to my computer, I began Bound to Love, a memoir of grit and gratitude, the story of raising my disabled son. Quickly realizing I needed to study creative writing, I participated in WriteLab (now defunct), completing twenty-four online writing exercises which taught me the basics of creative prose. I studied fiction at the University of Oregon under the poet Robert Hill Long, who encouraged me to attend graduate school, where I earned an MFA from Antioch University in both creative nonfiction and fiction in 2003. Since 2015, I have published Bound to Love: a memoir of grit and gratitude, and a trilogy of novels, Unleashed, Must Like Dogs, and Passing the Torch. In the fall of 2024, I completed a PocketMFA in poetry—a one semester intensive of graduate level work. If you want to know more, go to https://pocketmfa.com/about/
So much fun! Two poetry collections are coming out this spring: strange grace—the ending season, and every riven thing.
Poetry has taken over my life. I write a poem every morning, and consider it my spiritual practice. My poems have been published in the Redwood Writers anthology Phases, Soul-Lit, Delta Poetry Review, Braided Way Magazine, The Merton Seasonal, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Poetry Breakfast, The Penwood Review, New English Review, Rogue Agent, Voices 2024 and 2025 anthologies, Gunpowder Press, Chiron Review, and Blue Heron Review.
I am part of the Blue Moon Collective—a critique group—with Fran Claggett-Holland, Les Bernstein, and other wonderful poets. I develop themes of aging, disability, the degradation of our world, and awakening to the truth of our nature.
I also work with an amazing mentor, Peter Levitt, who is a lifelong poet and Buddhist teacher and am forever grateful for his guidance.
I have a son, now fifty, whom I also write about, luckily with his permission. I live in Sebastopol, California with my husband, Boudewijn Boom, and our dog, Jazz, who often shows up in my poems. Oh, and finally, when I turned forty, I did get that Irish wolfhound! I’ve lived with two—remarkable creatures. They remain my favorites, although at my age, I now have what I consider to be a small dog—55 pounds.
All photos placed with my blog posts are used legally, either from Unsplashed (provided by Substack), DepositPhotos.com (I have a subscription), photos from a friend who has given me permission (https://barnstorming.blog/), or my own images.
