from the poet
What can I say about my poetry except “I hope you like it?” As a young reader, I was influenced by Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, e.e. cummings, W.S. Merwin, Stephen Dunn, and Leonard Cohen—and as a student of literature, by the languages and poetic traditions of Japan and China, their quiet narratives and juxtapositions. In writing poetry, I explore everyday mysteries, honoring the riddles and looking for peepholes onto the old roads, seeking musical ways to share our baffling human experience.
My latest collection of poems, Everyone A Bell, was published by Kelsay Books in March 2020. My first book, Unpacking the China, was the 2016 QuillsEdge Press chapbook contest winner. I currently serve on the Board of Directors of Passager Books (Passager = passage + passenger), a small, independent literary press dedicated to writers over 50.
. . . from a gifted poet who senses the dark urgency of our time and lives deeply with the question of what she can say that will last. Everyone A Bell is a book of vivid and bold acts of witness.”
—praise from Kendra Kopelke, editor of Passager
