My Writing

I’ve loved language since I was young, but I came to poetry relatively late. To be honest, I love reading poetry more than writing it, but composition is like problem solving: how do I best say what I want to say?

Blog

I keep a blog on this site (view it on the front page, and here is the full post archive), and although the content may not always be sharp, it’s important that I write and publish regularly. For me prose writing is about memory, organization, and tone, and through repetition, mastery.

Books

I’ve had a number of poems published across two chapbooks (short books of poetry, historically sold by “chaps”, or traveling book salesmen).

Corduroy Forecast

Cover of Corduroy Forecast

“Maybe the way to outrun the indelible is to subtract what was from what is, and hope there’s enough left for living.”

Sixteen poems that explore the past, present, and future of manhood. From failing to follow instructions to trying to reconcile young-man tattoos with a older man’s body and life, this small collection touches on the importance of family, the frailty and shifting nature of strength, the need for tenderness, and coping with loss. Published with three other titles as part of The Rasp and Wine’s Fall 2010 offering, entitled “Between”.

The Fast Places

Cover of The Fast Places

“Too beat up to salvage, loved too much to let go. To the wreckers she went, four cylinders scrapped and young.”

In December 2007 Michael Gravel suffered a near-fatal run-in with a pulmonary blood clot. He spent the last 16 days of 2007 in a hospital. Emerging from the ordeal with a renewed sense of hope and empathy,The Fast Places is a short response to those events. Cars, friends, blood, and mortality all make appearances in this collection, published in early 2008. A book that is as much an extended prayer as a thank you.

Additional Writing

Writing the City: Poet Laureates of Edmonton

I contributed a poem (Sunrise Over Groat Bridge) to this excellent publication of poetry chosen by Edmonton’s four poet laureates. A nice little honour!

StreetRag

From December 2005 to April 2008 I authored a weblog called StreetRag. It was city-focused and detailed my observations and thoughts as a bus rider and city denizen. A podcast was added in 2008, and the site enjoyed a small but loyal following.

The Edmonton Book of Everything

I contributed a small piece (Mike Gravel’s TopFive Words that Describe Edmonton) to this interesting publication that acts as a “users manual” for Edmonton. The publishers surreptitiously lifted and reworked portions of my compendium of Edmonton Slang Terms without credit, but hey, no big deal.

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