Beasts and Beloveds is a collection of poems written between 1999 and 2008, and recorded by me and published as a CD in 2009.
Many of the Beasts and Beloveds poems grew out of life in Hyampom, in Trinity County, California. Other places I have lived and explored also make their appearance in the collection: Lake and Mendocino Counties – so much beauty and emptiness there! And beautiful on a gentler and more human level, Sonoma County. All in Northern California.
Some of my most memorable experiences, events that demanded verbal expression, were encounters with animals – when I was face to face with the sudden unknown of nature. It is not just the thrill of meeting bear and mountain lion . . . coyote, fox, eagle, peregrine – and phantom orchid – have all been catalysts for stopping and seeing clearly.
Music, particularly classical music, has always been an inspiration and a refuge. I am most in awe when listening to great music, and hold Mozart to be one awesome example of human creativity. In my writing I often make connections between music and everyday life and landscape; this planet is home to an amazing outpouring of creativity.
Where to buy
Beasts and Beloveds is available as a CD and can be purchased from the author.
Blue Heron, a poem from Beasts and Beloveds, is read by the poet in the audio clickable from the column on the left.