Allowing the Heart to Contemplate

I have written poetry for the last 30 years as I have found it help me see things in the world and in the people around me. For many of those years, the writing of poetry served as an aid in my pastoral ministry. Over the past decade, the writing has become more pertinent. The style of most of what I write fits what my friend and colleague Larry Grimes, Emeritus Professor of English at Bethany College calls "intimate and affectionate portraits". Those portraits come into effect where I live, among the hills of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia with my wife of 46 years, our two dogs and five cats.