I was an academic philosopher before turning to poetry. To earn my doctoral degree I focused on feminism. I published several papers on applied ethics, on topics ranging from ecology to science. In my article “Technopsychotic Annihilation via Cyborg,” published in Ethics & the Environment, I warned about the danger of humanity transforming itself into a new species in the near future, when it becomes feasible to link the brain directly to a computer. In an article in Environmental Ethics, I defended the politically transformative approach of ecofeminism. In Journal of Business Ethics I used ecofeminist theory to critique free market economics and suggest a more healthy form of capitalism.
Despite winning my PhD and publications quickly, not a single university or college would hire me. Penniless, I moved to a remote rural area, and found a voice in poetry. I have been writing poems for five years now, ever since being rejected by the academic world of philosophy. Over two hundred of my poems have been published. The journals include ‘prestigious’ ones like Chelsea and the Atlanta Review, as well as international journals like Kritya and Poems Niederngasse. I have been published on many internet sites, including Poetry Magazine, The Rose & Thorn, and Octavo.
I strive to write accessible poetry that yanks the soul, both passionately and morally. In the psychic underworld, ethos, eros, thanatos and pathos intermingle in anti-logical ways that can be encapsulated in words. As a desperately intense poet, I borrow elements from the sufi and the shaman, becoming majorly ecstatic and minorly prophetic.
There is a growing need for poetry now. The honest sort that shrieks of peril, or fawns at the feet of simple miracles. Such poetry reminds us we are close to warfare or ecological collapse. It renews our purpose as a treasure beyond the purview of greed and hate. My poems are meant as gateways into a trenchant psychology, a place where crossroads emerge from the emotional deeps and slaughter facade. They are meant to spotlight wounded bits of hidden stories caught fleeing conformity’s jail. My poems employ figments of myth but only as small dancers in a larger waltz of descriptive wordplay. Humans are more complex than gods and should write accordingly.
My poems strive to destroy in order to create—the oppose of armies and demagogues. In the end, the race is between the repressors and the anguished artists in us all. Will we be sheep or delvers? I strive and pray and write to be the latter.