sun who is the source of all perfect light inside i am alive your illuminated brilliance gives me all cradled in blue ridges streams leading to shining peaks overlooking jeweled island neon green mosses hemlock grandmothers waiting to be heard supreme friend you must be honored and protected look at your veins pulsing the unbelievable miracle of your skin your perfect lips bringing me only the most needed words of assurance good air good light good water good lightning the soothing words i forgive you healing instantly whispering kindness to each cell of my body to each cell of universe you are powerful you are whole you know everything the sight of kindness heals me my right hand massaging my left hand robins laughing oh perfect light inside i believe in you pulsing star who gives to all let me be a nurturing grandmother like you let me not forget you * we nurture our ancient mother who sustains us these corporate industrial fires cannot be good for our rivers these assaults on the air cannot be good for our breath deer live here hawks we turn the oil pipes into steel bikes we make it a sustainable town * straying from love a chance to return to love wars end by asking how can i serve what can i give not what can i get * star moss scent of wet spruce bark returning melted snow coming down from the mountain finding remnants of a fallen crow first i’ve ever seen quiet grave by the stream marked by a few feathers and a grandmother’s hand descendent of the oldest living being life is always supported by the bones of death and humus of decay climbing the stream on thawed trails of dead leaves to glowing rock guardians where snow still glistened beech leaves rattling a song calling all is light all is me in another world no one else has ever seen wrapped in holy gold there the new day shine bathes us summiting the hilltop magically then racing back down smiling *
online poems
a pod of orcas breached the turquoise waters / after hurricane maria / amazed that i exist | New Feathers Anthology
journey to dc (excerpt) | Portland Press Herald
outside the aviary / sweet valley | Entropy Magazine
dislocated heart / talking to your mother / food sovereignty | Requited
call center / the world on time | Yes, Poetry
please lift our breathless lungs / forever rivers / exiled / city of visionaries covered in diesel | Poetry Pacific
i met a beatific elder on the greyhound / in allegheny national forest / help me make it a feminine town where we blend and give / carlisle| The Glassblock
i’ve learned to worship the infinite on a smaller scale / what are you going to do now | Red Flag Poetry
elegy (for jimmy reed) | Pittsburgh City Paper
books
where i come from the fish have souls | Spuyten Duyvil
on this borrowed bike | Three Rooms Press
outside the rules of industry chapbook | lp
Island Dreams chapbook | Cabildo Press
poems in journals / anthologies
i keep drumming to aretha slow / Rapture / i know how it felt for you to become god / re-membering | Maintenant
after hurricane maria / amazed that I exist | New Feathers Anthology print edition
please lift our breathless lungs / enough | Enough! Poems of Resistance and Protest
no direction home | Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan
in time | the accompanist
poems in newsletters
message from a whale / where i come from | Planet Drum Pulse
wild distance | Lato Selvatico
on the north shore | Small Press Pittsburgh
why is someone running / Airport / guantanamo | Maine Peace Action Committee
visual art / mixed media
reading of three poems video | Bangor Public Library
“trampled by giant cell phone towers” / “found poem – stars our tents” / “Now” (collages) / “removing the sheep’s mask” (painting) | Maintenant
sounds | soundcloud
“outside the aviary” / “i took off my mask” videos | Bangor Public Library
“no road home” video | Maine Women Writers Collection
reading at nocturnem video / “beneath the waves” spoken word | the accompanist
prose
reviews
this glittering republic | quenton baker
islands of decolonial love | leanne simpson
the new testament | jericho brown
birthday poem | etheridge knight
nurses who love english | paula coomer
gift for the end | mariee sioux
a raisin in the sun | lorraine hansberry
the turquoise ledge | leslie marmon silko
interviews
by lp
with lp
About
I’m envisioning a place of equality and justice where it’s recognized we share a connection to the environment and one another: the life-giving sun, water, air, ground, and stars. I feel unable to truly rest in this awareness until all people, animals, and lands are treated with respect and allowed to thrive.
Some anti-colonial context: as a white person of scoth-irish/italian ancestry born on taken Indigenous land I benefit from the gencoide/slavery aftermath and colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples and territories. I am a proponent of reparations being made to Indigenous peoples, as well as to African American peoples, for stolen life, land, wages, health, and well-being.
Originally from Spokane, WA, I now live in eastern Maine where I serve as a freelance editor. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine; received a Pushcart Prize nomination; and have led spoken word / poetry workshops for youth in foster care, teachers, and Maine-Wabanaki REACH.
