Author Archives: mnies24

My wife and I recently again visited New York for a weekend. It was rainy and beautiful and we found ourselves at Chelsea Market. I wrote this poem while my wife tried on clothes at Anthropologie. It is nothing much, but a snapshot of time and place and definite people. Chelsea Market 2024 Late September […]

The dribbling cost of entire lives play the best of the best on our screens. I don’t have time to watch most of the games, but I’m impressed by the effort of those who have nothing to lose except if they lose. The defense is impeccable. And defense is 9 parts effort, 1 part intelligence. […]

Last week, the world lost a stirring voice in the poet, author, intellectual, educator, and mentor, Larry Woiwode. I will think of his loss and I am still processing it and praying for his family. I endeavor not to fill this space with too much of my own poetry, yet I cannot say it better, […]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had a rich career, in both wealth and wealth of poetry. He gave us The Song of Hiawatha, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” Evangeline, translated works like Dante’s Divine Comedy, among others. One of my favorite poems of his is “The Rainy Day,” which I especially think of on rainy days. I have more […]

My attitude toward cleaning has changed since having created a steady supply of mess and muck to clean up, that is, my kids have helped me clean more, that is, my kids help supply more to clean—dishes, clothes, toys. My son was so surprised when I said I don’t enjoy the work that he pitched […]

The poet Robert Bly died. I get a poem a day from various sources including the Poetry Foundation. Today, they sent out Bly’s poem “The Life of Weeds.”  Like most of his work, I’m sure it is beyond my head or over my understanding unless I really think about it. What grabs me with his […]

Ninety years after first foundations laid The groundwork for what has grown into Several thousand citizens in a municipality In northern PG County, we gathered to parade  And maybe a little, too, against the pandemic Which I’d venture most had vaccinated against.  We caught the parade’s tail end of flashing lights and sirens Followed by […]

Many parents with young kids can relate to sleep-deprivation. There is a certain mania associated with waking up from a late and perhaps interrupted night to an early morning and rushing to dress and feed and scatter to work, daycare, school, and the daily hustle. It’s a rush if it weren’t also eyes closed and […]

No matter where I’ve lived, I’ve come back to and drawn from my experiences growing up on our family’s homestead. My poetry book Sunset Dreams is a compilation of poems I wrote over many years. It highlights and celebrates the Ashley area and its German-Russian culture, examining its place in our histories, before diving into […]

The New English Review published a poem I wrote, “Straw Man.” You can click on the link to go to it. The subject and title come from the phrase “straw man argument.”