Everyone Begotten, Everything Holy: (Poems and Libretto)

Everyone Begotten, Everything Holy braids stories of those who often fade from consideration--the background singers and silenced voices among us. It notes the external vulnerability and inner turmoil in every human being, while it celebrates the ordinary and the joyful ways we move through our communities and lives. The collection reflects the poet's musical studies and decades-long career in journalism and speech writing in work that weaves themes of music and composition, health impediments like Parkinson's disease and addiction, a sense of place and lack of belonging, theology and religiosity, and violence and war. The collection invites readers to consider, "In what ways are we/am I successful, complicit, doubtful, curious or troubled in spaces that seem to qualify the invitation 'Come as you are'?"