About me:
I am a Gemini; my life is defined by dichotomy. I have a deep-rooted desire to communicate; yet, I'm extremely introverted and find that most of my communication is with myself. When I allow myself to care, I care too much; yet, I am easily angered and lash out at those I care about the most. I am intelligent, creative, and I love to learn; yet, I lack the motivation to put the intelligence, creativity, and knowledge to useful purpose. I am spiritual, although not too religious, and I feel a deep connection to the invisible aspects of the universe; yet, I am easily distracted by this transitory material world. I am opinionated and have a firm sense of justice and equality; yet, I suffer from anxiety disorder and find myself worrying too much to speak out about or act upon those things with which I disagree. I am the opposite of myself, both thesis and antithesis; I expect great things to happen if ever I manage to synthesize the two.
I am a seeker of the True Grail, the Grail that shines with the Holy Light. I am a seeker, a knight, but by no means perfect, and I am on constant guard against the distraction and temptation presented by false lights, mere grail-shaped beacons. I believe in the power of the Elements, of Angels and Daemons, and of the Godhead in all Its aspects. I believe in the power of Man and of Woman, both separately and together.
I believe in the evolution of the Spirit. I believe that humanity as a whole, and each individual comprising the species, is here to learn and evolve, to progress toward perfection--no matter how long that may take, no matter how many lives a soul must live. I look around, and I see depravity and cruelty; I see the forces of Evil at work in the world. I also see kindness, and gentleness, and love, and I see Good. I see these coexist in our species as a whole and in each individual, including myself. I look around, and I see that we are very far from perfection, and yet there is hope.
I believe that time and space are illusions. It is only our limited capacity that imprisons us within these illusions. We are one with the Universe, with the Godhead, and with each other. We are One. When we love others, we love ourselves; when we hate others, we hate ourselves; when we help others, we help ourselves; when we hurt others, we hurt ourselves. I believe all of these are necessary for the Universe as an entity, the Godhead, to know Itself. Through our experiences, It experiences; through our gaining of wisdom, It gains wisdom; through our journey toward perfection, It slowly moves toward perfection Itself.
I am complex. This brief description barely begins to define me. Like all individuals, I am a mixture of both Ego and Self. I have described my Self, that part of me that lies deep within and remains connected to the invisible world. On a strictly physical, material level, I am also a poet, a philosopher, a husband, a father, a man struggling to lead the best life he can. I exist partly in this physical realm, and so I recognize its importance. I try to balance my quest toward spiritual evolution with the mundane matters of that which we call life. Often they overlap. Sometimes, they go hand in hand. Sometimes, they conflict. Sometimes, discord and harmony struggle with each other, side by side, face to face, in a single event or series of events. These are the most difficult to face, but they are the best learning experiences. These are the ones that leave me astounded at the universe, recognizing within it both a simple complexity and a complex simplicity. These are the ones that are the most painful, and yet the most pleasurable. These are the ones that teach me the most, further me the most along my journey. Such violent events reach deep within the soul and offer two choices: One can become stronger, or one can be broken. I am not broken yet.
Who I'd like to meet:
Generally, anybody who's friendly and intelligent. They don't have to believe the same things I do or like the same things I like, as long as they're not belligerent or proselytizing. I'd also like to hear from people who read what I write, whether they have words of praise or constructive criticism.
You can leave me a message using the contact table in the upper right of this page. I also have a selection of my works and a blog at
WordPress. You can always leave a comment there. I'm on Twitter, too; you can keep in touch with me there.
My writing:Back by popular demand! Samples of my works. Note that these works are copyrighted but are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. You can click on that link to find out all about it, but basically, it means you can copy, download, send copies of my work in whatever manner you like—as long as you: 1) keep my name attached to it; 2) don't use it to make a profit, and 3) offer it or any derivative works with the same license.
First off, here are
The Darkness and the Light and
Where Have You Gone, Great Goddess?, two poetry chapbooks I put together in 2005.
I offered them for sale at a mere $6.95 each. A reasonable price, I think. Not only that, but I made sure people knew that half of the profits would go to charity. Well, sales were lousy. I never made a profit. I still have a bunch of copies stored away in boxes in my bedroom. I'm displaying them here for everyone to see, because I have a desire to share my work.
If you like what you see here, feel free to request a hard copy. I'll get one to you. Free, if you'd like; for payment, if you're willing. Either way has its benefits and drawbacks. If you take a copy
gratis, I don't have to worry about the accounting, but it could take you a while to get a copy, since I'd have to find the cash to send it to you. If you pay, I'm making money, and that's always a good thing, plus it covers the shipping costs; however, I have to do math, and that's not really my thing. It might be easier to just download the ebook versions, which contain the full text but aren't formatted quite as nicely, available for $2.50 each on my profile page at
Smashwords.
Anyway, here they are. Please peruse, and let me know what you think. I look forward to both praise and criticism regarding all the works presented below. Sometimes I have my Comments turned off, but you can always send me a message using the Contact Table above.
A note on the Scribd viewer used here: If you find it difficult seeing the text, you can zoom in using the slider at the top.
In addition to poetry, I write short stories. The following was published in the 2007 issue of
Waves, the literary journal from the local college.
I also have a short story called "Edward's Song" at
Every Day Fiction and also downloadable for free from
Smashwords.