Hello

Some of my poetry social media has grown a lot in the last month, Thanks for that, guys.

Felt like a good day for an intro post.

It’s hard for me to mentally engage this space at times, so often I just…don’t. It’s not great for the algorithm and seeing growth as an author but it’s fantastic for the ol’ mental health to sit and stare at the snow pea vines in silence. I highly recommend.

I’m New Jersey born and east coast raised but New Mexico is where I now spend my days. I love the barren landscapes and forever sight lines of the southwestern desert. I do miss rain and the ocean and even my arch-nemesis, winter, but not enough to go back.

I’ve been married to Tom almost fifteen years and am a pastor’s wife and mom of five, three with Jesus and two with us. We love you Penelope Hope (2021), Noah Dean (2022) and Lillian Mercy (2023). We wait eagerly to join you in endless joy.

I’m very honest.

Sometimes to my own detriment, though I still fully believe too much honesty is better than too little. It’s both a saving grace and a learned habit that I tend to process internally and offline first. I have no interest in social media as a spectator sport. What ends up here is usually the fruit of reflection, the working out of how my love of Jesus, confession, hope, convictions, kindness, the teachings of Jesus, patience, truth, grace and love of neighbor look in our world today.

My favorite thing to think about is the soul.

We are quite literally all made of dappled dust and eternal breath and the nuances of that reality endlessly fascinate me. It’s my favorite part of life in full-time ministry which I try to remember often because, I’m a full-time job myself and most days I still wake up surprised to be a pastor’s wife.

I never planned on this. Literally ever.

I was always much more a nose-in-a-book, wander barefoot in the yard girl who dreamed of travel and the frontier, not marriage and children and ministry.

Yet, here we are.

Life and God have fulfilled many dreams, added a few new ones and snapped some clean in two. Along the way, I’ve had more chances to talk about the soul and Jesus than I would have ever thought possible and that is a joy heavy with weight. If you want to come talk of Jesus and things that ache well, I’ll be by the raspberry patch.

You’ll see a whole lot of things work their way into poetry that I fiercely believe in and a few glaring absences of topics. I have no interest in writing about a lot of the things that consume America today: maga republicanism, ultra-conservatism, human regimes of any flavor, or definition-less liberalism that masquerades as freedom. Kingdoms rise and fall and I find little to no life in all those ideologies, none of them spring from wells of eternal hope.

So, poems about the soul it is.

Also cats, I hope you like them.

Some random facts; I’ve never broken a bone or gotten a ticket. Folk music, always. When I was twenty I up and moved to India for several months. It remains one of my best decisions. I love cilantro and poetry but have endless amounts to learn about the latter. I don’t see well, literally. My vision is like a -9.

Someone told me I didn’t say hello to them at Wal*Mart because I had a grudge. No, girl, it’s because you were by the avocados and I was at the oranges and so you were a squiggle.

I’m pro green living rooms, iced coffees and hiking in the rain. Very much against tarantula hawk wasps, the cat pee flavor of beer, countertop SCOBYs, please don’t invite me over if you have a rotting jellyfish floating in your kitchen, and sorry, this one may be the most controversial thing in this post, but I really don’t get dogs.

Thanks for being here, for reading and engaging.

It means a lot 😊.