New Poem in the Spring Issue of Black Coffee Review

My poem “Phone Booth in Tujunga, CA” now appears in the Spring Issue of Black Coffee Review, alongside some excellent poets like Kevin Ridgeway, Alexis Rhone Fancher, Bunkong Tuon, Julianne King, and Alan Catlin, and many others. My thanks to David Taylor for accepting the piece and putting this issue together.

This poem is a throwback about a visit to California in my mid-20s, and the piece also appears in one of my recent poetry collections, Feral Kingdom (Kung Fu Treachery Press), which includes a number of poems from the last ten years or so that have to do with the time spent between “lives,” the gulf between those places and periods where things feel settled…until they’re not again. The book is available for $15 and supports not just myself but a great small press. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading this poem!

Feral Kingdom is Now Available

My latest collection of poetry, Feral Kingdom, is now available from Kung Fu Treachery Press, and you can find copies at either Barnes & Noble or at Amazon. A small number of signed copies will be available at future readings and free reviewer PDFs are always an email away, just ask! The collection features poems about that wild and lonely landscape between old lives that have fallen away and the new ones we have yet to find, a place of raw nerves and awkward nights, of bars drenched in neon and highways promising something better. There’s a feral kingdom out there, and all of us have to walk through it, live it, survive it, one way or another. For samples of the kind of poetry you’ll find within, check out “Spiders at Night” from Up The River, “West Texas Skyway” from Punch Drunk Press, or “My Ex’s Father” from Foliate Oak Literary Magazine. My deepest thanks to Kung Fu Treachery Press and to all of you for your support!

Three New Poems In Three Of My Favorite Lit Magazines

Things have been rolling this week. On top of my new book dropping Halloween night, I have three new poems appearing in three different magazines around the net. 

My poem "Hunger" joins a slew of others in a special edition of Drunk Monkeys: The Year of Trump, a collection of poems, prose, interviews, and art about life in this "new normal" that shouldn't be normal at all. The writers here are no fan of 45, and my pieces laments over how to deal with loved ones who have gone lockstep in a strange and frightening direction. The issue is full of wonderful writers, like Rachel Nix (Hobo Camp Review's new associate editor!), Ally Malinenko, John Grochalski, Cat Conway, and others.  

Another "Trump" poem of mine, "Last Cigarette," appears over at Winedrunk Sidewalk. This site publishes a new poem every day about life under 45. Keep checking in for all kinds of voices speaking up and out.    

Finally, Lonesome October Lit (one of my favorite new online journals) has included my poem "The Incident at Choke Cherry Farm" in their big Halloween extravaganza yesterday, and I'm so happy to be part of it. Anyone who knows me knows I adore Halloween, so this is super cool. My deepest thanks goes to poet and editor Kate Garrett, who also selected my poem "Prayers from Dunwich" earlier this October.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all down the road...