Playing chess with my computer,I struggle to relearnwhat, where, and how to moveand now all I see is squares—bathroom and floor tiles, crossword puzzles,the checkered blouse of the lady in front of me—as pawns plod forward in dull straight paths,rooks zoom about in their rows and columns,bishops whiz diagonally back and forth,while king steps cautiouslyone […]
My new poem “The Woman in the Window” was just published in the Winter 2023 issue of Sky Island Journal. You can read it here https://www.skyislandjournal.com/issues#/issue-23-winter-2023/
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Can you read this? Most days, my words look more like tracks of a sandpiper skittering along the edge of the sea. But I see them clearly now—o blessed words! There’s so much I want to say before they leave me again and I must go back to that inarticulate cell, as memories play out
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I chose to write this poem in an unusual and complex French form called a sestina. You may notice that throughout the poem there are six words that occur at the end of each of the first six stanzas. And as if that isn’t difficult enough, these six words must be used in a precisely
Hi All, For those of you who didn’t have the chance to attend my recent reading or watch the entire video, here’s a short clip of me reading “Hopper’s People,” accompanied by images of Edward Hopper’s paintings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfFNgDszGF4&ab_channel=GeneTwaronite This poem is part of my latest poetry collection (my fourth!) Shopping Cart Dreams, available from Kelsay Books
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I am excited to announce that I’ve been invited to perform an in-person reading (my first in three years!) from my new collection Shopping Cart Dreams. This live event will be at Woods Memorial Library in Tucson (3455 N. First Ave.) on Saturday, June 25, at 2 p.m. My reading will be 40-45 minutes, then open
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Here are two more reviews of my newest poetry collection Shopping Cart Dreams. “Gene’s craft is so airtight his poetry seems to effortlessly reveal the deeper truths that we thirst for, and they contain a gravity that our hearts simply cannot escape. He creates a complicated view of our existence, and we love how this fully engages
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I am pleased to annouce that my fourth poetry book Shopping Cart Dreams has just been published by Kelsay Books. A full-length collection offering an eclectic range of poems ranging from serious to quirky and absurd, this is my most ambitious work yet. Though mostly free verse, it includes a number of prose, ekphrastic, and
Shopping Cart Dreams: Available Now Read More »
An author signs a bookto affirm the life within.Written in subconscious code,it is the soul’s imprimatur. Note the perfectly formed lettersin Virginia Woolf’s signature, wholly legibleas if meant to show a balanced soulnever at war with itself. What complexities lurk in the signatureof Edgar Allan Poe, who adorned his letterswith loops and dots, underlined beneathlike
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I was just going through some of my earlier poems and discovered this one, from my first published collection Trash Picker on Mars.* It reminds me of my early days as a writer when in my rush to fill the page with words I did not always take the time to find exactly the right