When I turned seventy in January, 2025, the “bucket list” became real. There were things I suddenly needed to do: spend as much time as possible with my baby grandson; bicycle from my house in Kirkland , Illinois to my son’s house in Irvington, New York (where my grandson resides); return to Argentina after a fifty year hiatus; publish my writings.

After I retired from teaching in 2020, I devoted myself to writing, but I didn’t devote myself to submittiing my writings to publications. I dreaded the submission process because I feared it would take away time and energy from writing. But, I knew I had to do it.

Sure enough, submitting my writings to publications has taken a lot of time and energy, and what I dreaded… came true: for the first four months of this year, I pretty much stopped writing.

I have gotten a dozen or so poems published, as you can see (click on PUBLISHED WORKS, top right on the home page) with a few more in the pipeline. Winning first place in the Helen Schaible sonnet contest in the modern sonnet category for my poem “She Wanted to Sleep Head to Foot”– was the turning point that made me decide the time might be right to start this “media platform”.

The contest judge , Donna Vorreyer, said this about the sonnet:

This sonnet’s form seems to be a nod to Diane Seuss’s long-lined sonnets in Frank. This form also complements the narrative – the infinite and haphazard movements of caretaking and confusion, seeing everything you used to know changed. The images of the sleepers at the beginning of the poem and the reference to bodies at Pompeii at the end resonate beautifully as images of both tenderness and what is and what once was.

On October 5, 2025 the sonnet was read aloud over Zoom. Now I am submitting it to be published.

In order to get my writings published , most publishers require that the pieces remain unpublished elsewhere, including here on this blog.

I have written nearly 700 poems, 24 short stories and one play.

I really want to share all of these with you.

I’ll keep submitting, trying to get them published.

I intend to share some unpublished poems here, along with the ones that get published.

Let me know if you want to read the winning sonnet (if you haven’t aleady) or a small sampling of my poems. I’ll send these to you by email. You can specify the kind of poems you are interested in: God, clouds, psalms, death, cycling, gardening, Gaza, love, etc. I’ve probably got something for you.

Here is one of my bilingual poems. This one was published August 12, 2026 by LatinosUSA. Many thanks to editor Juan Re Crivello!


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One response

  1. johnhenderson219 Avatar

    Ok, makes sense. I’ll start with the sonnet, when it’s available. And I subscribed to the blog so I’ll get each new post. If you are interested, here is my substack, “Further Up and Further In”, which is mostly playlists and a smattering of other things. I publish

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