Poetry Quarterly has selected my poem, “First and Last,” as their 2018 Rebecca Lard Award Winner. I am honored for this selection.

“First and Last” is from an unpublished collection, Dark Fathers, about my relationship with my father, which as is often the case was for a long time a problematic one. This poem describes the time when he and I began to reconcile, which always involves forgiveness on both sides. That catharsis and reconciliation began after his major heart attack, which he thankfully survived for another 23 years, a time that allowed us to become loving friends as well as father and son. But in the time of the poem, that was unknown as was his very survival.

Thank you Editor Glenn Lyvers and the Poetry Quarterly team for this high honor. 

You will soon be able to purchase copies of the issue from their bookstore.

The parent of PQ, Prolific Press, also published my collection, Final Inventory, last October, and you can purchase a copy from their Bookstore.