the light ekphrastic
“May Day,” finalist for the Sow’s Ear Poetry Review 2014 Poetry Prize
“Curfew,” first place, Oberon Poetry Prize, Oberon Poetry Magazine 2016; short-listed, Fish Poetry Prize 2016
“Saratoga Passage, August 2014,” The Moth, short-listed for the Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize and reprinted in The Irish Times; Winner of the 2015 Lascaux Prize in Poetry
“The Last Hours of Summer,” Third Prize, 2014 Maryland Writers Association Literary Contest
“Phantom,” Oberon Poetry Magazine
“When Living Well Isn’t Good Enough, Invite Your Enemies to Dinner,” The Poeming Pigeon
“Saudade: 1983,” Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings 40th NMW Awards
“GPS,” The Whale Road Review
“To a Poet of the Three Gorges” and “Famine Memorial, Dublin,” Arlington Literary Journal
“The Color of the Fluid in My Father’s Catheter Reminds Me of Snowball Flavors,” Reed Magazine
“Beauty,” “Winter Storm Warning,” and “What to Do When Someone Shoots Up a Gay Nightclub in Florida in the Name of God While You Are Living at an Artist Colony,” The Potomac
“How to Unpack a Bomb Vest,” Rattle, Poets Respond
“The Investment Building,” finalist, 2017 Muriel Craft Bailey Award, Comstock Review
“Reverse Bachata,” Califragile
Thresholds has garnered the following recognition:
Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award: semi-finalist
Backwaters Press Prize for Full-length Book Manuscript: finalist
Brick Road Poetry Press Book Contest: runner-up
Broadkill River Press Dogfish Head Poetry Prize: honorable mention
Additional Thanks
I owe numerous people a thousand bows for their help, encouragement, and assistance in the making and shaping of these poems and this book. I thank my father, sister, and my wife for being my most bedrock supporters, both in life and in my pursuits. I thank the luminous poets Bill Jones, Kathy Cottle, Clarinda Harriss, Edgar Silex, and Lisa Bickmore for being early readers of this manuscript, and for their comments and suggestions. Every publishing team who previously published many these works individually, some in earlier form, deserves immense gratitude for seeing their worth and in sharing them with others. Thank you also to the crew at Apprentice House Books for your care and labor in making this book possible. Finally, I recognize and bow deeply to Naropa University, and to my esteemed instructors there, including Anne Waldman, Steven Taylor, Andrew Schelling, and, in memoriam, Anselm Hollo, Joanne Kyger, Jack Collom, and Allen Ginsberg.
Some of the work in this book was written and edited during a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
For my wife
and for my father
Contents
To A Poet of the Three Gorges 3
The Maximum Effective Range 12
During the Mexican Revolution, Slain Catholic Rebels Were Strung from Telegraph Poles 14
When Living Well Isn’t Enough, Invite Your Enemies to Dinner 25
