the latest poetry project...

The new manuscript I've been working on for the last year or so is starting to coalesce into an honest-to-god book instead of just a pile of poems (cue the marching band and choirs of angels!).

This is distinctly awesome, because I spent a six month period after Allegheny, Monongahela was picked up by Red Hen totally convinced that I was never going to write again.  But lo!, an idea struck me as I watched the most recent BBC film adaptation of Jane Eyre two winters ago.  I had forgotten how twisted and dark that romance is, and I started writing poems in the voice of a very angry interation of Jane so I could explore that relationship further.

The new book, which is still in the draft phase and tentatively titled "The Book of Monsters," weaves together two series of poems: one, a lyrical re-imagination of Charlotte Bronte's novel; one, a series of epithalamia* that focus not on the traditional event of a marraige, but the moment when a person makes an irrevocable choice.

One poem from each series was featured by John Hoppenthaler at Connotation Press recently-- check out "Red Red Red" and "Epithalamium: August 24th, Herculaneum" HERE.

*Don't worry, I had to look it up when I started writing them, too: Epithalamia - noun, pl - a song or poem in honor of a bride and groom.