On my admissions application to Chico State I had logged in as an English major without any plans for that degree, should I ever earn one. Once on campus, like thousands of other kids, we were stuffed in the hot basketball gym, going from table to table, all trying to sign up for courses that would take us through the Fall semester. One my great surprises that day was discovering their creative writing program. I say surprise because I had never visited the campus and knew very little about the college. I came on a whim at the suggestion of my high school buddy.

I signed up for four writing courses and one of them was a poetry class with the wonderful professor/poet, Gary Thompson. Poetry had never been an interest for me, until that class. The world of words opened up to me through the great Spanish poets, and Rilke and James Wright, Bly, Plath, Snyder, Neruda and so many more. I loved the conciseness of the stanza. I loved the lyrical wave from line to line. I loved the heart laid bare in rhythm.

Writing poems requires so much more of me than making photographs. Through the years I made a few attempts at putting some stanzas together. But I never fully immersed myself into the craft. I didn’t read enough. I never found “my voice”. Family, photography (had to pay bills) and life consumed me. There wasn’t a lot of career practicality in poetry which, ultimately, is its beauty.

So here are some poems I wrote at various points in my life. I have not reworked them so they are as raw as the day they were written. Now that I have created this page I hope to start writing again and add to this collection. Thank you for reading on.