Latest Works

I would go to war with everyone if more than harm could come. I could plead at the feet of a lesser deity  for retaining joy as red clay...

At her father’s funeral, Willa stood next to Aunt Clara, her back ramrod straight as she tried to think about anything but the casket in...

They said an angel lived in the belfry. It was a strange tale to those who hadn’t grown up with it. A rumor that drew either the most...

Our back porch faces west, across a thick wood. When the sun is  setting just above the horizon,  it shouts a resounding last call...

When I was a child, I believed  some crawled there in the gravel, falling God planted me in the deepest ocean  over a threshold  then...

Dante does not presume to call him by name But poet, father, master, teacher and guide. His respect seems paramount, but the words ring...

wisps of my mother’s Latin  haunt my head while  my fingers caress the water’s surface and I cross myself  In the name of the Father, the...

“Jimmy!” Grant whispered. He grabbed his sleeping brother’s shoulder and shook him. “Jimmy, wake up!” Jimmy groaned. He opened one eye...

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” – From the Passover Seder Here I lie, chad gadya on my hospital bed counting my...

Kate looks nearly translucent under the stage’s spotlight. But she knows this. She doesn’t wear a getup like the others. No tattered...

The altar here is a bait box on a cold deck. The wharf is  our pilgrimage road. We worship ships lost at sea and the children who grow up...

My wife was giving our young son a bath one night when he raised a toy helicopter above his head and said, “I saw God from my...

what writes itself on the surface of the stream  reveals its lungs in concentric circles  to me tethered to the bank  as pale gold leaves...

I  He shows me his hands,  calloused from work.  I look past their roughness  and see  his mound of Venus  protruding from the thumb....

goodbye, Grandma said  in Mandarin  not a language she knows.  one she learned for me  who left home  and her garden unattended  one she...

Whenever our family got together, it was inevitable that we would sit and tell stories. We would gather in my grandparents’ adjoining...

Thou anointest my cornbread with honey.  My sweet iced tea overflows.  Though there may be tough rows to hoe, Goodness, grace, and mercy ...

To thee, an angel, called by the Lord unto the operation of this machine— In the days of Moses thou puttest the word of God into the...

At a lancet looking out  on empty hills and dark forests, Carpathians  hulking against the horizon like titans,  he watches for other...

The river doesn't care if you're ready. Mid-life catches you like an undertow, drags you into waters too deep for standing. One day...