thank you all so much for your kind words about my poetry… i truly appreciate your support, though i warn that you shouldn’t be too impressed––i’ve been practicing for nearly twenty years, but have only recently written anything i would consider worth sharing.

like burnt sugar is easily the most complete and fully-realized piece i’ve ever written, and I suppose that’s exactly as it should be, considering that it was inspired by the stunning young woman behind the espresso machine who would later become my wife.

as i wrote it, some seven years ago, little could i have known just how prophetic that poem would be…

there, in my love-sick longing, i imagined meeting this sweet & beguiling girl on day of the dead (dia de los muertos) in Mexico, soaked in the visceral, honey-dripped romance of her place of ancestry. it was an image i simply couldn’t shake from my head, no matter how i tried.

and now, seven years later, the significance isn’t lost on me as i prepare to commemorate lori’s all-too-short life on the upcoming one-year anniversary of her passing––in Mexico, and of course on day of the dead.

truth really is stranger than fiction.

but i consider myself beyond lucky to have found my way back to self-expression… poetry has brought a sense of peace back to my life in a way i never could have imagined.

and while my active grieving over the loss of lori has pretty much faded into a dark, shadowy memory from my past––new trials and tribulations have brought poetry and the purging of my emotion back to the forefront where it belongs… as a daily part of my beautiful, beautiful life.

there is a light, salty breeze on my neck, even as the sun warms the coldness in my skin. bees buzz the passionflower that hangs above my head.

i am feeling both tender and strong, and that is exactly how i want to feel… because that is me.

{but i’ll admit that i’m still missing a certain little honeybee… buzz, buzz!}