POETRY & ESSAYS
WRITING LINKS:
2022 The Plentitudes, Winter, NY https://www.theplentitudes.com/piece/the-broken-vase
2023 Remington Review, Autumn, IN https://www.flipsnack.com/remingtonreview/remington-review-fall-2023.html
2023 Stories That Need To Be Told anthology, Tulip Tree Pub., MO https://www.amazon.com/dp/1962812804?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
2024 samfiftyfour literary magazine, issue IX, Spring, VA https://samfiftyfour.com/shop/ols/products/issue-ix
2024 The Calendula Review - Journal of Narrative Medicine, issue 2, CA https://www.thecalendulareview.com/issue-2
2025 The Plentitudes, issue #17, Winter, NY https://www.theplentitudes.com/piece/dangerous-substance
2025 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Spring/Summer, NY https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54bc1287e4b09cb81d8d8439/t/67ec8270f473f446e9364ea8/1743553136689/A+Letter+to+Death+by+Clare+Olivares+Spring+2025+Intima.pdf
2025 Lunae Literature & Review, Issue 1, December, Substack https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tnSqL0H0POz2T8Yu0SqHi49s_-L0WSEh/view
Mooring
I approach the mornings reading poems
it is the only way the world is shaped now
one poem at a time
gathering the cracks in my mind
holding the deep ache in my heart
on knees crawling through a lost sphere
clasping my hands tightly to hold me together
for another day for another week
until I find your harbor
the mooring of your breath
On the Edge of Loss
Love on the edge of loss
is a perfume carried on the wind
fleeting but recognizable
full of fickleness and hope
burns when bright
fades to embers
stirs but doesn't stay forever
awakens us to ourselves
loss asks us to remember
and begin again
At The Edge of Wonder
Follow your heart
aided by a sturdy compass
pull yourself away from the wreckage
exist in space that holds echoes
pass through the gorge
watch the Earth spiraling toward stars
guided by your capable heart
standing at the edge of wonder
Uncle John
Fretting over boxes filled with memory
a photographic slide of my uncle
the one that read cereal box labels
like they were poems
or life lessons he needed to learn
a snapshot smile in Hawaii
before it was a state
when dancers swirled with fire
grass skirts in every photo
old Hawaiian churches fascinated him
although I don’t recall his family
eating religion for breakfast
no prayers over cornflakes
but maybe his spirit hid
in the words on the cereal box