bipolar camping fathers Gods of Water and Air memoir essay poetry about the ocean rocket rocket scientist San Pedro

The Land of Totuaba

I’m excited that my memoir essay of camping in Baja California with my bipolar rocket scientist father and family is now published online at Halfway Down the Stairs. This issue of the journal has a rich selection of poetry and prose, and I’m honored to have had my story selected. “The Land of Totuaba” is an excerpt from my memoir of an unusual childhood with a father who blew up rockets for a living and…

Continue reading

camping Christmas poem fathers poetry about fathers poetry book San Pedro

Missing my dad at Christmas (which he hated)

Why do I think so much of my late father, our family Grinch, at this season? Because I always suspected his way of loving the holiday, as a Jew who celebrated it to please his family, was to grumble his way into the whole joyously chaotic event. This poems, from my first book, Earth Lessons, celebrates the frictions that ultimately became a gift. CHRISTMAS WEEK IN SAN FELIPE Up my nose, between my teeth, tiny…

Continue reading