Gloria was truly a great soul in the highest degree. She was one of my heroes, who inspired millions the world over and helped me become a better man. And I am blessed and reminded of her every day by my wife Jo, a charter subscriber to Ms. Magazine, who followed her dreams and fought
Golden Canyon, Death Valley The walls close around meas everything starts to flowmustard-colored sedimentssurging on violent waterscompressed ineon-long secondsinto layers of living rockconglomerated and torturedtilted and thrust intojagged tips against the skyuntil wind and waterbreak them apartinto boulders and pebblesthat crash and tumbledown the canyon I feel myselfnewly constructedfrom the surface debrisof past agespressed and
Few newspapers offer book reviews anymore, but our daily here in newspaper still thinks books are important enough to review. Here’s the review they published of my latest collection, Watch Us Burn: Poems for a Lost Earth. From the forest conflagration photo on the front cover and the book’s title, there’s no mistaking Gene Twaronite’s
New Review of Watch Us Burn Read More »
… he liked the country undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery.—Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows he liked ithard as ironwoodno medals pinned to its chestno stars and stripesor fancy ribbons tohide its true naturean eagle stripped ofarrows and olive branchessoars high abovethe shifting windsof freedomto see more clearlyall the peaks and valleysof
The spadefoot always knowsthe day it will break. No time to stay below,the desert awakes. Feel the thunder’s hammer throw,your long thirst to slake. Hear the clattering crescendo—no short-lived, sprinkly fake. Arise with the riotous outflow,the world is a lake. Bask in the sunset’s afterglow and sing for the lives at stake. From my new
When the Rain Comes Read More »
Though yesterday was World Environment Day, I believe every day should be environment day. What could be more important than this precious earth we live on? So here is a little cento from my latest collection of ecopoems, Watch Us Burn: Poems for a Lost Earth (Kelsay Books). Ecopoems are scientifically based poems that emphasize
Despite the title of my new ecopoetry collection, it is not all doom and despair. There is beauty and wonder. And hope. In her inspiring collection of essays, Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit describes despair as a trap that gets you off the hook. “If the world is totally doomed no matter what, little
The Beauty and the Sorrow Read More »
You may have heard the term “ecopoetry” and wondered what the heck is that. So what exactly is an ecopoem? A relatively new term with no precise definition, still evolving like life itself; but in general an ecopoem shares certain traits: 1.) Tends to be eco-centered rather than anthropocentric 2.) A nature poem that has
I am the Earth: Ecopoetry Workshop Read More »
One of the poems in my new collection, Watch Us Burn: Poems for a Lost Earth. Ever since I moved to this beautiful desert city, I have struggled to put into words the fierce and strange attraction this place wields over me. But with the help of these poets and this venerable poetic form I
Thirst is All I Know Read More »