Sometimes I think that the most important thing we do in our lives is to create - whether it be poems, stories, artwork, music, children or love.
56 years ago, Mr. Kerr, my junior year high school English teacher, encouraged me to write my first poem. I haven't stopped since.
In 1985 I gave my first public reading of a poem I had written. Since then I've given hundreds of readings throughout the United States. I started working in schools as a poet-in-residence in 1990 and have since worked in scores of schools in numerous states around the country. Yet, that work was always something I did "on the side" after the making-a-living work, selling wine for a local winery, was done for the day. In 1995 I decided I couldn't do that other work anymore. The work drained me, emotionally, physically, spiritually. I knew what I wanted to do - be a poet, a creative person with words. So, I quit the winery and since that time I have made a living being a poet, publisher, oral memoirist and encourager.
Now my work is my life - there is never a moment when I wish I was doing something else. I'm healthier and happier. Maybe not richer in money, but there are other types of wealth not measurable in dollars and cents.
From home on Wheeler Hill I go out into the "dust of the world," as the old Chinese poets would say, doing the work of a poet and oral memoirist. I travel down the road and then return to settle back in on quiet, peaceful Wheeler Hill amongst my old-order Amish neighbors. The best of two worlds.
The pages at this site will explain more of what I do as a poet, oral memoirist and encourager, as well as listing upcoming events, providing some recent writing, and how to get in touch with me.
Feel free to e-mail me if you want more information, are interested in booking me for an event or just want to send me a comment. I'll get back to you asap.
Thanks for visiting!
