Creative Writing Portfolio

Morning's Funeral

This page lists several of my poems. Writing is how I find meaning, and I hope that you will enjoy reading some of these.

I started writing poems when I was in middle school. I found myself experimenting with different styles: haikus, sonnets, rhymes, etc. What started out as fun soon became a refuge. The process of writing poems has subtly changed me. Writing poems, and the introspection that comes along with it, have allowed me to investigate the qualities of my own existence. I find the world arriving at unexpected angles and revealing my blind spots. I have started to see my world expanding at the edges. I feel I am more aware, less tightly wound … arms outstretched to the possibilities.

My poems try to touch the world I see, but sometimes I feel that world reaching back to me through the poem. The invisible, dividing lines between these worlds are blurry and the boundaries forever changing. Reading poems and writing them makes me more aware.

My goal is to write more; write simply; know what to leave out; and build confidence in layering complexity.

Creative Writing Mentorship

I have been mentored by Prof. Dan Beachy-Quick for the past 3 years. Writing means the world to me, and thanks to him, I have found my way into it. He is infinitely gifted, and also the kindest. His mentoring has helped me find my voice. He has engaged with my poems with an openness and generosity that made me feel “heard”. I have always looked forward to workshopping my poems with him. When I workshop poems with him, he tells me places where what I am doing works, and where it isn’t. All of this without ever letting me lose sight of my own voice. Prof. Beach-Quick is a Guggenheim Fellow and was longlisted for the National Poetry Award and the PEN/USA Literary Award in Poetry.

After our meetings, his words would sit next to me like a trusted friend. Especially, as I reworked my poems and worked on new ones. And things started to change. It was not that new world emerged before me. Rather, I was seeing this world through a new set of eyes.

Over the past 3 years or so, I have written over 150 poems. Every poem that I write goes through multiple rounds of edits. However, several of my poems (about 2 in 5) don’t make it past 3-4 rounds; often, what seems like a good poem when I originally wrote it, comes across as lacking (to me) in ways that intervention or “hard work” can’t salvage. I had to learn to let go. Some poems just lose their way. But every poem I have written has opened up a new world for me.