Hard Soled Shoes is a collection of poetry designed to appeal to several, specific audiences. The first audience consists of: other poets, creative writers, and literary critics. I have submitted a work drawn from the life experience of a 42 year-old man. I crafted the poems with the academic learning gained from a graduate study of poetry and creative writing. My graduate education has helped me recognize a higher and broader standard in the realm of poetry. It also enabled me to refine my own style of writing; a comfortable mix of song lyrics and image-rich writing.Another group I hope to reach with this collection is a segment of readers who have a limited knowledge of poetry. I feel it is important to reach out beyond the academic community to a broader audience. There are many people outside academia who can appreciate and enjoy good poetry. I chose many poems for this collection that are accessible and relevant to people of many backgrounds, interests, and demographics. The use of humor, meter, rhyme, and familiar characters give the pieces understandable "hooks" to draw the attention of readers. The inclusion of song lyrics and musical devices like refrains bring a familiarity to readers who only have experience of poetry through popular music.My intent is to use simple and clear language to express more complex ideas. Hopefully the depth of subject matter will entice readers to re-read certain pieces and consider new ideas. The use of repetition and rhyme will hopefully bring focus and power to certain poems and create at least a few memorable or quotable lines from the collection.I believe a poetry collection can be an artistic endeavor and still have a broad entertainment appeal. My education has prepared me to recognize and write quality, literary poetry suitable for publication. My years of experience producing creative ideas for media and advertising have made me aware of the challenges of trying to reach a vast audience. I see a hole in the media market. I believe good, accessible poetry could fill a void and successfully satisfy the needs of a specific, literary niche. / Department of English

This project comprises the best poetry written in my graduate study at Ball State University. The title, Liminal, is a term that has reappeared thematically in my work. Merriam Webster defines it as: "the threshold of a physiological or psychological response," but more than that, for me liminality is the doorframe between things; it is poetry. Poetry is a conglomeration of splicing between inner worlds and outer worlds; it tries to capture and recreate physiological or psychological responses, bringing the reader into the threshold that the writer has exited. Poetry is a door, a threshold; it is liminal. Thresholds are infinite and immeasurable; therefore, I have tried to capture or recreate liminal moments of my life into words that are physical, measurable in a sense, and therefore create presence, inviting readers through the threshold of my literary house out of the liminal abyss. These 36 pages of poetry contain liminal subject matter, whether embodying sexuality, relationships, spirituality, or moments bordering life and death, but always the inestimable line between two things. / Department of English

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The Sea Cow and the Siren is an animal-pedia, a translation of Marianne Moore's creature portraiture, and a serial blazon in verse.

The poems in The Observing Ape are arranged into three chapters: "Neighbors," "Making," and "Strangers." At their core, these poems trace the ways in which speakers internalize the exterior world. Although no single narrative unifies the collection, each poem records the consciousness of a speaker as the interior and the exterior intersect. Through persona poems and intensely perceived images, the collection strives to understand how humans learn, observe, and imagine. However, forays into visual art, primatology, and voyeurism color the poems with cultural referents, and these referents infuse the poems with a quirky reverence for a world that stretches beyond a strictly linguistic or personal experience. / Department of English

The following project is representative of both my struggles and achievements as a student of creative writing. The poems contained within were developed through a virtual restructuring of my creative process. With the exception of one sonnet and two haiku poems, the remaining creations are free-verse experiments, heavily influenced by the works of James Wright, Robert Bly, and Robert Creeley. My goal for each poem was to connect the verse with those rare and fleeting moments in life that are often overlooked. In order to achieve this goal, I had to venture a little deeper into the realm of both imagination and possibility, without, of course, completely letting go of reality. Essentially, each poem explores two distinct worlds: that which is contained in the heart and that which the heart can never attain. / Department of English

Love Poem with Exiles is a collection of poems with a critical preface. The poems are varied in terms of subject matter and form. In the critical preface, I discuss my relationship with poetry as well as the idea that we inherit poems, and that if we are inspired by them, we can transform them into something new.

Merging from the Distance offers a place to display the poems I have created during my tenure as a graduate student. The four sections found within represent different personal aesthetics. My thesis is also representational of a personal chronology, for it was my intention to demonstrate my efforts of contemporary poetry. Many of the poems seek to engage symbiosis by combining different languages, forms, and levels of diction. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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This poetic thesis is an exploration of the darker side of relationships. There are two parts of this thesis and they are to be read independently of each other. Part one is concerned with the chaotic relationship structure between lovers, husbands and wives, and the unexpected anguish that results from living an inauthentic life. Part two of my thesis is a rumination of a past close friendship and the tragic death of that friend. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection