"On Passing or Notes Towards a Manifesto" was one of the most challenging poems to write that was included in my collection, Trouble Sleeping.      While, on the surface, it's about my complicated relationship with my father, it's very much about me coming into my own an artist and an adult charting my own way through the murky waters of gender scripts and cliques that exist in the art community. 

"Self Portrait" is an ekphrastic poem written after watching the critically acclaimed film "Moonlight." 

Anti-Pastoral is a part of a longer poetry sequence that I call "MICRO/AGGRESSIONS." I've become obsessed with pastoral poems as I traveled to so many writer's retreats during the pandemic. The beauty of this exercise was the surprising turns the poems made while surrounded by nature. 

"On Meeting Robert Hayden in a Dream" is really an ode to a poet that I consider one of my literary parents. As a college student, one of my professors commented that I looked like a young Robert Hayden. After that moment, I knew I wanted to write a poem to and about Robert Hayden. This poem has taken on a life of its own. When it was first published by the Academy of American Poet's Poem-a-Day, I received emails from all over the country. It felt wonderful to be in conversation with so many readers over one poem.