THIS WEBSITE IS MY PORTFOLIO of words & pictures as a Peace Corps volunteer, not so long ago in the Kingdom of Wonder. Which curiously coincides with this moment in Northern Colorado, where, although no longer in the Corps, I am still wandering & wondering—Tree B.
Pictures I Saw, But Didn't Take
Two years in Cambodia gave me a memoir and lots of photos, poems, and essays. PICTURES I SAW is a book of ten photos with poems and corresponding essays. It's a tribute to my Cambodian teachers and reminds me that although memory may re-order experience, it can also recall the fragrance of jasmine years later.
Mistranslations
MISTRANSLATIONS IN THE KINGDOM OF WONDER chronicles my time teaching English and art at a rural village in Cambodia. The story runs 270 pages, with nine photos and poems. Why join the Peace Corps at your age, you might ask? I am a card-carrying senior citizen when I sign up. Truth is, I join out of grief with the hope that the Peace Corps can give me insight into the next chapter of my life.
Audacious Bright Light
School begins early in the tropics. If you’ve ever lived near the equator, you know what Hot Season feels like. Relentless. I’d bike to the high school half an hour before our first class at 7:30 to write before the morning hub-bub. These poems are my 100-word Morning Gazettes. AUDACIOUS BRIGHT LIGHT connects twenty photographs with twenty poems from the Kingdom of Wonder.
Sweet Pea Clothesline
Last summer, the sweet peas in my garden were glorious and bossy—they demanded to be painted! This spring, I hope to be accepted into a Western States art show with nineteen of these watercolors on paper. I imagine it displayed as a field of sweet peas hanging on a real clothesline, swaying in the imaginary breeze on a brilliant summer day somewhere in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.