Ends are in beginnings.
Beginnings are in ends.
I published over 200 poems in such magazines as Runes, Big Muddy, Colere, and the Comstock Review. My poems have appeared in many anthologies, including The Poets Grimm, Visiting Frost, and The Pagan’s Muse. Several of my poems have been performed in productions in New York and Baltimore.
I also performed a wide range of musical traditions with my band of 40 years, The Golden State Ramblers.
During the pandemic, I regularly shared my poems with my neighbors, and in 2020, they named me Poet Laureate of Naglee Park, San Jose.
I never achieved widespread fame and fortune, but that was never my goal. As they say in Russian, “I don’t have 100 rubles, but I have 100 friends.”
I took my last breath on May 27, 2025. My musings, puns, and riddles live here now, encoded in bits and bytes. I invite you to follow this trail of breadcrumbs I’ve left and see where it leads you.
Chapbooks
dakota
2017
Dakota brings us deep into my childhood, family, and memories of growing up in North Dakota.
bruegel
2016
A cycle of poems that explores and muses on the detailed universe in fifteen of my favorite Bruegel paintings, accompanied by large color plates of his work.
the masked ball
2011
A menagerie of poems dealing with the interior, the lives we live behind the mask, including chapters from my life and a cycle about Homer’s Odyssey.
homefields
2003
Homefields takes us from the harshness of a North Dakota winter to the gray cities of Soviet Russia, from the warmth of home kitchens to the literary seascapes of Moby Dick.
Publications
2025
Creosote, Eastern Arizona University
The Naming of Canes
Oakwood, vol. 5, iss. 3, University of South Dakota
Families
A Lamb’s Tale
Trajectory: Writing that Illuminates
Revenant
The Waiting Room Journal, Nervous Ghost Press
Morning Thoughts
2024
Oakwood, vol. 5, iss. 2, University of South Dakota
Buffalo Tooth
Erick Agonistes
Norse Gods
Steel Plow
2023
Creosote, Eastern Arizona University
Walking the Dog
Oakwood, University of South Dakota
Nine Years Old
Body Memory
Prose and Poetry
The Waiting Room Journal, Nervous Ghost Press
First Sips
The Kitchen Murders
Wholeness, A Wising Up Anthology
Thrift Store
The Whale Line
Wild Crone Wisdom: Poetry and Stories
The Dark Queen
Mad Meg
2022
William Blake
Creosote, Eastern Arizona University
The Brothers Grimm
Hay Delivery
Earth’s Daughters, vol. 95: Reset
New Year
Cleaving
The Kerf, College of the Redwoods
The Old Lawnmower
Steam Ticket, vol. 25, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
Holy Raiment
TallGrass “Play”
Duet
2021
Adult Children
Daddy
My Father’s Mantel Clock
Flip Sides: Truth, FairPlay & Other Myths We Choose to Live By
Alone
Excess
Lost and Found
Negative Capability 2021: Mise en Place
Clean As You Go
The Inn at the Southern Cross
2020
Cæsura 2020: Om & Ohm, San Jose Poetry Center
Extremities
Colere
Ithaca
Living Forever
Shelf Lives
Earth’s Daughters, vol. 93: Under the Rug
Ice Skating
Childhood
On Blake Street
2018
Last Call: The Anthology of Beer, Wine & Spirits Poetry
Peasant Dance
Open Country
Fire Escape
Morning
Windmill
Secrets (anthology)
Boning a Pork Loin
Surprised by Joy: A Wising Up Anthology
Helix
A Summer Day
2017
Of Burgers and Bar Rooms, The Main Street Rag
Clean As You Go
Aurora Borealis
The Deronda Review, vol. 7
After the Earthquake
Eclipse
Where the Tree Fell
Earth’s Daughters, vol. 90: Hindsight
Getting It Together
Spillway, Hello and Goodbye, Moon Tide Press
Down the River
2016
America’s Poetic Soul: The Anthology of Enlightened Poets for America
The Airman
It’s About Time, Mint Hill Books
Memoir
Surviving
The Kerf, College of the Redwoods
The Oracle
Stuck in the Middle: Writing That Holds You in Suspense
Falling
To Unsnare Time’s Warp: Stories & Poems about Dogs
Dog Dreams
Zymbol
Trying Times
2015
Auteur
Crossing Lines, A Main Street Rag Anthology
Benderborder
The Escape
Penumbra, California State University, Stanislaus
July
Keyboards
The Kite
My Spiral Notebook
Spillway: Epiphanies, Moon Tide Press
Epiphany
TOSP, Reflections
Dealing With Life
Meadowlarks
2014
Common Ground Review, vol. 16, iss. 2
The Fall of Icarus
Creativity & Constraint: A Waking Up Anthology
Cooperation
Leonardo’s Heart
Structure
Wind Chill Factor
Garden Blessings: Poems, Prose and Prayers Celebrating the Love of Gardening
Garden
Spillway, Moon Tide Press
Larding
2013
Muse Press
Universe
Steam Ticket, vol. 16, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
In the Brezhnev Blocks
Waiting Room Reader, University of Chicago Press
Bobcat
2012
Aunt Chloe, A Journal of Artful Candor, Spelman College
The Airman
Earth’s Daughters, vol. 85: Small Things
The Argument
Eye in the Sky
2011
Earth’s Daughters: vol. 84: Light
Thunderstorm
Handling Things
Harmonies
Making My Maze
J Journal, City University of New York
Assassination of Dr. King
Myshkin
Shadow and Light, The Monadnock Writers’ Group
Mason Jars
Oracle
Making My Maze
Mason Jars
Solace in So Many Words, Hourglass Books
April
The Captive
2010
Amoskeag, University of New Hampshire
Ishmael
Earth’s Daughters, vol. 83, Dancing on the Edge
Chopping Block
Pigeon on Her Eggs
J Journal, City University of New York
The Dead, the Deeds
The Kerf, College of the Redwoods
The Ash Is the World’s Tree
Off the Coast, Maine
Jim
Summer River
Winter Flood
Seasonings
Bread
Fermentation
Preservation
Spillway, Moon Tide Press
The Agate Ring
2009
Atlantic Pacific Press
Bobcat
Dakota Thunderstorm
Horses in the Orchard
I Ride Sophie
The Kite
Owl Pellet
Common Ground Review, vol. 11, iss. 2
Planning
Authority
Think: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays
Maze
2008
Passager, University of Baltimore
Assassination of Dr. King
Zeus Seduces the Wicked Stepmother in the Saloon of the Gingerbread House, Winterhawk Press
Grandmother
2007
Seeds of Our Mothers
Mother
Animus, Sheltering Pines Press
Spies
On the Verge
2006
Blueline, Potsdam College, SUNY
Chopping Block
Candelabrum (UK)
Myshkin
Celebrations, July Literary Press
Names
Chrysanthemum
Out of the Frying Pan
Pigeon on Her Eggs
Common Ground Review, vol. 8, iss. 2
Frost
Manzanita
Jack Fishes With a Pitchfork
Thunderstorm
The Equation of Time
Rough Places Plain
Splitting Rails
Runes, Arctos Press
Homefield
Stories from Where We Live: The Great Lakes, Milkweed
Thunderstorm
Wordwright
Woodbutcher
2005
Everyday Blessings
April
Familiar, People’s Press
Fosterchild
Ha!
Flour and Rice
Heartlodge
The Equation of Time
Visiting Frost, University of Iowa Press
Frost
2004
Big Muddy, Southeast Missouri State University
Ice Breaking
Isolationism
Freshwater
A Dream at Sea
The Kerf, College of the Redwoods
In the Hermitage
Older
The MacGuffin, Schoolcraft College
Chef’s Knife
Riverwind
How to Listen to Jazz
2003
Ancient Paths, iss. 10
Judas
California Quarterly, California State Poetry Society
Cut Finger
Mercy of Tides
Straits
The Pagan’s Muse, Citadel Press
Redbeard
The Peregram
Owl Pellet
The Poets’ Grimm, Story Line Press
Grandmother
Runes, Arctos Press
Owl Pellet
2002
Big Muddy, Southeast Missouri State University
The Circus
Storm Fence
Colere
On the Canal
Sawplayer
Fresh Water
Autumn Ebb
2001
Runes, Arctos Press
Reading Old Poems
Stories from Where We Live: The Great North American Prairie
Dakota Thunderstorm
2000
Metempsychosis
Knowing Stones: Poems of Exotic Places
Visiting the Dead
The Raven’s Gift
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2000, St. Martin’s Griffin
Grandmother
1999
1998
New to North America, Bogomolny, ed.
Dakota Thunderstorm
1997
Blue Unicorn, vol. 20, no. 2
In the Garage
1996
1995
California Quarterly, California State Poetry Society
The Spring
1991
Blue Unicorn, vol. 14, no. 2
Melville
1990
Damage
Hellas, The Aldine Press
Torn Ligament
Tucumcari
Pigeon on Her Eggs
Planning
Splitting Cedars
1989
Book of Contemporary Myth, Caitlin Press
Sources
Plainswoman
Ice Breaking
The Round Table
End of the Quest
1988
1987
Blue Unicorn, vol. 11, no. 1
Joyce
Hungry Poets’ Cookbook, Applezaba Press
Popcorn
Z
Prince Myshkin
Sprinkler System
1986
Amaryllis
Garlic
Dan River
Cut Finger
South Coast
Interior
1984
Blue Unicorn, vol. 8, no. 1
Dreams
Huck Finn
Cape Rock, Southeast Missouri University
Homefield
Preserving
1982
The Lyric
Frog Prince