Published!!!

It is really hard being a writer. Rejection is something you have to adjust to like a hot shower... before long, you just don't feel the burn anymore. However, when things work out in your favor, you must always celebrate.

One of my poems was recently chosen to be published in the Literary Magazine, Weber Studies. This is a poem I wrote for a professor who recently passed away from cancer.

In my experience, poems rarely come finished. Usually you have to sort through the garbage you write that needs to be weeded out. This poem felt different from the start and it was an answer to a prayer.
Hope you like it!

Occupation-to Ken Brewer

After diagnosis,
he turned over his half-written
notebook and began to work
until the last swallow of life was left.

Writing wouldn’t be rationed.

When we are told
how many
breaths are left,
and approximately how
long it takes cancer to eat
at the liver, lungs or breast,
our nature may move us into
our final occupation.
These are the jobs we’ve possibly lived
or lost
or neglected.

We become the philosophers,
complainers,
and lovers—
caught cursing
or crying
the day
the heavy hand
of God is set
on our shoulders,
and we are painfully asked
to leave.