Category: writing

Raw Materials
Every tree in the orchard dangles ripely, unjustly dripping luscious fruit the size of four hands. The imposter sits, supremely still, in the midst of it all and gazes upon the garden scene. The kale is full to overflowing; the carrots are digging a well for themselves; the rabbits have compounded labor for a new wire fence and the imposter gazes down at her hands. These hands? Only two hands. What’s the … Read More Raw Materials

Blue Jays
Tough. (I don’t feel tough though, my tongue is on the gritty floor and covered in dirt anddebris from a weekend of debauchery. I don’t feel anything other than tired.) I’m told the blue jays mate even when they’re dying, as if evolution could not hold a reverent bow for the last breath of an angry bird. Supposedly that attitude was in the contract I signed a year ago, though the … Read More Blue Jays

Tandem
I seek solace in the company of cafe tablesand black aprons. Hair that sways, liquidly, under a rotating fan. I write in the companyof strangers, in order to be myself. As if I could hear the words from their lips instead of feel the conversation like a forest. As if it could not matter when the forest was on fireor still, peaceful in dew dreams under a rising … Read More Tandem

On Judging a Poetry Contest
One finger tapping against an illusive white ceramic cuppa something—you don’t know—I’m a mystery, I’m the poetry editor. Illustrious task, these scribbleslaid bare to me, laid out like coffee spilled silent on the plate. Not too late to duck down into hiding, find a proper bunker. Fortunately good poetry chooses me, not I and I know in my heart

Start Here
Beginning is the most difficult. Here is this vision, this goal, this dream. Here is the triumphant ending, here are the quick montage days of the “normal” middle, and here is the second breakfast on the unusually warm day and the little boy passing a granola bar through the car window while I rest my bicycle against my thighs at the traffic stop. What … Read More Start Here
+ About Josie, Austria, Bold, Gratitude, Hawaii, Humor, Indonesia, Kansas, Literature, Living on Purpose, Nature, New Zealand, North America, Poetry, World Perspective, writing
Announcement!
Available in paperback and e-book, Articulated Soul is a collection of 50 poems in five categories (Kansas, Austria, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Hawaii). These poems catalogue the many fragrant emotions of living abroad on one’s own, the sites and smells, the insecurities. Supplementing the angst are 25 original collages, expanding the metaphor of influence and creativity. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors and … Read More Announcement!

+ Hawaii, Nature, North America, Poetry, writing
Approaching the Alphabet
Flight control signals hard against the rain which whips >>> catastrophic! against the slick window panes salt and pepper ocean waves corn soup flavored popcorn the day … Read More Approaching the Alphabet

Hiccups
The artist at work in her studio the sweat running down dusted forearms the sun shining in through plated windows and the artist barely breathing. So barely hiccups happen hic ups interrupting the artist

On Writing a Poem in the Morning
green mint tea seeps around the rim of the garden plate ductile : serpentine I set the cup down and it clatters. It’s about how to see the things how to get to the vision the tea cup is significant and not a step in that direction.