Poetry portfolio

My books, my current projects, and some ephemera I’m still pleased by. Enjoy!

Books

I’ve made two books of poetry, two of translation, and a story in verse for children.

Dumuzi (2020)

A book-length poem sequence, Dumuzi refracts the story of the Su­­merian vegetation god kaleidoscopically through diverse found materials. Buy the book here.

Unlikeness Is Us: Fourteen from the Exeter Book (2018)

These translations from a tenth-century miscellany of Old English verse received an American Book Award in 2019. Read “His Message” (Asymptote). Buy the book here.

Curious Masonry: Three Translations from the Anglo-Saxon (2011)

This book marks the beginning of my long & fruitful relationship with Gaspereau Press. In 2012 it won First Prize in the Poetry Category of the Alcuin Society Book Design Awards. Buy the book here.

Ox (2007)

My first book of poems – how young they are and I was! A few still stand up, though. Ox was a finalist for the BC Book Prize for Poetry in 2008. Read “Broken Ground” (Paris Review). Buy the book here.

Jack Pine (2007)

A picture book for kids illustrated by Cybèle Young, Jack Pine tells the story of an ugly & unwanted tree whose sacrifice lets others live. The story was made into an opera by Vancouver Opera in Schools. Out of print, but you can find a review here.

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Works in progress

These days I’m exploring visual poetry – the nexus where word & image meet to cross-pollinate. Here are a few projects on their way to becoming books.

Undone

Undone is an elegy for my father. To make it I manipulate photos of the Mount Baker Wilderness (one of the places where I learned from him how to walk) with a digital threshold tool.

Red Black & Blues
(A Monster Translation of a Text by Donald trump)

I made this asemic parody of one of his tweets with Sharpies on cheap notebook paper. It became an artist’s book and now I’m looking into a trade edition. Read excerpts in DIAGRAM.

SIRI Falls Among the Things of the World

This graphic novella recounts the underworld journey of a newly sentient AI. The images are derived from security envelope linings. Read an excerpt in Ancient Exchanges.

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Diverse & Sundry

A sampling of other works – visual poetry, errant translation, & the like.

Glitch Apple (2022)

An errant translation of Genesis 3. As a chapbook by above/ground press. Online (where is the river). On making it (periodicities).

A Mostly Empty Interpretive Wonderland (2021)

A talk on Robert Grenier’s seminal work Sentences.

The Sirens (2020)

An experiment in asemic animation first published in Bellingham Review. Read my artist’s note.

The God Dumuzi and the Police Force Inside (2020)

On visual poetry & errant dictation, published in ottawa poetry newsletter.

Dumuzi (Mud Variations) (2020)

A take on Dumuzi that takes his earthly origin to heart, published in Ancient Exchanges.

Dumuzi Incipit (2018)

An asemic spinoff of Dumuzi published in Asymptote.

SCRO (2016)

My first asemic work. It premiered at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Read about it here.

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