Boulder, Colorado
Born 1961, Denver, Colorado
Poet, Teacher, Small Press Publisher
I understand the writing of poetry as processual and exploratory, not as a means of landing upon ultimate discovery. In a sense, I find that writing poetry, like the practice of any art, maximizes a sense of suspension during which my/our usual conclusions are held at bay and I/we can enter a different mode of attentiveness. Lately I have been experimenting with writing as less an act of utterance than of listening. My sustaining preoccupations have been with spirituality, ethics, and the formation and operation of community. Trying to attend to these closely enables me to participate in the problems and opportunities afforded by a wrestling with spiritual or ethical issues, and with the day to day vexations and pleasures of living in the world with other humans and sharing language with them.
1999 M.A., Ethics, Pacific School of Religion
1995 Master of Divinity, Pacific School of Religion
1987 M.A., Creative Writing, Brown University
1985 B.A., Literature and Psychology, Bard College
2006 Under That Silky Roof. Providence, RI: Burning Deck Press
2006 Apostrophe. Berkeley, CA: Apogee Press
2004 Apprehend. New York, NY: Fence Books; Berkeley, CA: Apogee Press; New York, NY: Saturnalia Press
2003 Pure Descent. Los Angeles, CA: Sun & Moon Press
2001 Harrow. Richmond, CA: Omnidawn Press
2000 House Made of Silver. Berkeley, CA: Kelsey St. Press
1991 Bed of Lists. Berkeley, CA: Kelsey St. Press
1990 In the Sequence of Falling Things. Providence, RI: Paradigm Press
2002 Fence Modern Poets Prize for Apprehend
2002 Tenets of Roots and Trouble included in The Best American Poetry of 2002
2001 National Poetry Series for *Pure Descent *
1989 Grant from the Fund for Poetry
1987 Baxter Hathaway Prize for a long poem, Epoch Magazine
