~ Tempests ~ Having come from the seas of your storms and decades of disquiet, I step, directionless, on an unmoving Earth. Being tooled for havoc, I despair of knowing what might fill this brazen peace, this wild surcease. [Art: The Ship, by Salvador Dali]

2 years ago today, I finally stopped taking high-dose steroids after being very ill. 2 years steroid free, and 2 years since I became well enough to get back to my true love: writing. Yesterday, the result of that journey went on pre-order! What a week! Feeling very grateful. 🙏

~A still pond, padded with lilies, dappled with netted sun. Cicada hum. My green rest. Please- pocket the stone and let it alone. I’ll paint you as someone sepia and fleeting by this bower’s dome.~

Out now!

There were table saws, whistling kettles, a hallway maze, and cushions strewn on the floor. A serious bird that bowed and said nothing. It was night in the dream-room, and the only light was red, shining into the years ahead...

~Finders keepers~ (TW: Suicidal ideation) In this year of China’s moon,
there ends a life too soon. On the cliff’s outcropping I stand,
not yet daring the mile-down view.
I wait for the scene seekers to disperse,
then pin this sorry note to the grappling tree. You see,
I cannot shake them.
Like brain bees they buzz.
Dark stories they tell, without end. All help seemed too busy with life. Now, I will walk backwards,
fixing on the air’s horizon,
leaving no room for second thought. I will count the paces.
Ten, twenty, thirty.
I will wait for the surge of crazy strength.
I will run, arms wheeling,
and be gone. Good person,
I hope to make the river,
winding in the sun’s silver,
to spare you the sight’s abomination:
my pile of jellied bones,
entrails of pastel,
abalone membranes. If the punctured eyes contrive a stare,
it is not accusatory-
only a mirror
of a hell that slowly did go by.

Delighted that my poem "Peacemaker" has been selected for 'In Every Generation, An Anthology', to be published by @UnsolicitedP – exploring how peace is inherited through families, communities, & collective memory. Gratitude to editors Leonora Simonovis & Amy Shimshon Santo 💙

This book is sure to leave you with a wholesome tear in your eye. It's out on pre-order, get you copy right away. I highly recommend it! a.co/d/jblAt8N

My son read it. He laughed. He cried. He understood. And then he said: “Dad, you’re my second favourite author. I prefer this to Harry Potter.” I’ll take it.

“If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.” — Andy Rooney

Purple Like the darkness of grapes, the maturity of a bruise, a medal's heart...

~This attached head that hums, as merrily we roll along. That swells at the scent of compliments, but sees the pricking needle at the ready. That's testy as a new bruise, has a black hole to do the vacuuming, and packs a straight razor, thinking of severed ears.~

Do you think you'll stay now, and give it one more chance? Perhaps there is a bit of worth, a tinge of old romance. Sound up on the TV set as you watch the news... it's not like it's a wound just yet. It's only just a bruise.

Just finished my first author event it was the biggest the bookstore had ever had and there were no chairs left and the store completely sold out of copies. I am absolutely floored with gratitude 😭

A jay alit on an iron gate. Ucopia of lilac scent. One weathered sidewalk pane, its stamped oval reading 1979, saved by the later-day masons. Pride of house. Blossom beauty, and one walks and wonders what days there may yet be left of the shine of those caretakers.

~ Broad summer ~ Hammock sway 'neath a maple's tower. Alive with lilac incense. Cloistered in creation. On the threshold of a dream.

~ A wrought iron fence bedeviled with lichens of rust; entwined with plum blossoms. A master’s frieze. ~

A brilliant collection 💛💛🙏

Charlie Angus: "Israel's announced that they're going to go ahead with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This is a war crime ... Either the international rule of law stands for something or it's a joke. Either we have the Statute of Rome and we hold gangster criminal regimes to account, or hey, you can do what you want, because the next country will do what they want. That can't be allowed to happen."