The Liminal Man

Writings of a man born between worlds

Sonnets

• “Hope” (2025)
• “Second Premise” (2022)
• “First Premise” (2022)
• “At the Dawn of 2023” (2022) 
• “Bliss” (2022)
• “Midway” (2022)
• “Blackrock” (2022)
• “After Dinner” (2022)
• “Saipan” (2022)
• “Bridgework” (2022) 
• “Biodiversity” (2022)
• “Dopamine” (2022) 
• “My Father’s Epitaph” (2022)
• “Maker’s Lament” (2022)
• “A Bedtime Prayer” (2022) 
• “A Morning Prayer” (2022)
• “Driven” (2019) 
• “Winter Love” (2006)
• “The Primary Consideration” (2000)
• “I Do Love” (1999) 
• “Their Motto” (1997-98)
• “A True-to-form Shakespearean Sonnet in Rhymed Iambic Pentameter” (1996)

Narrative Poems

• “Goliath’s Last Challenge” (In progress) 
• “The Song of Uka” (2019)

Free-form Poems

• “Doomscroll” (2022)
• “What is a Star?” (2014) 

I have long envied and admired illustrators and other visual artists for their ability to create beautiful and powerful images of—seemingly whatever they want—at will. They create! I do not have their skill, but I can shape words when the moment is right. Words are the gift I have, and these poems are the highest expression of that gift I know how to make.

As with every other use of my mind, my approach is analytical first. My poetics are rooted in formal constraints: meter. rhyme scheme, historical forms such as the sonnet or terza rima. These constraints create a problem space that my mind must navigate and solve as I express my thoughts. Problem solving is the foundation of my creative process.

In writing poetry, I have pursued clarity of thought, natural and modern language, vivid images of contemporary life, and formal perfection. My favorites are marked with an apple ().