Poetry
I've been writing poetry since the 1980s. I graduated SUNY New Paltz in 1991 with a degree in English Literature.

My work has appeared in a variety of literary journals in print and online since then, including Midwest Poetry Review, Recursive Angel, Poetpoetzine, AllPoetry.com, Late Night Poets radio show, The Hyacinth Review, Syncopation Literary Journal, and more.

I've also been a steady promoter of poetry throughout the years, as I'm convinced it's something everyone should bring into their lives. Long ago, I published a series of "Poetfest" anthologies, featuring works of others. I also promoted access to poetry for over 20 years at my local library system by developing poetry guides, downloadable learning materials, and online features in support of National Poetry Month.

In 2022, I finally published my "debut" poetry collection, The Humbling and Other Poems. In 2023, I published my second book of poems and essays, May We Learn from the Earth. As time permits, I will be releasing books new and collected poems that go back to the 1990s. My next collection, Gracious Nature, will be published in 2024.

Poetry links:

• Poetry Books (in print and digital)
• Explore some of my works at AllPoetry.com
• Explore some featured poems at Instagram
• Explore some featured poems at Twitter
• SPIRA was an ekphrastic series of art-inspired poems I posted online in 1999. I since reposted it on AllPoetry.com. This link will take you into Archive.org's WayBack machine, where the poem was originally preserved.
• My verse play (and Hamlet prequel) Yorick: Fellow of Infinite Jest was featured on About.com's Shakespeare page in 2001. I reposted it at AllPoetry, and you can also explore it as it was preserved by Archive.org's WayBack machine by following this link.

Art
I've created art in both natural (oil, acrylic, pastels, pencil, charcoal, clay) and digial media. I've practiced many art styles over the years (e.g. classical, futuristic, impressionist, expressionist, surrealist). For the digital media I've used Blender and GIMP.

Through Blender I've created hundreds of works for well over a decade, a period I also took a break from publishing my poetry in order to focus on honing my poetic abilities, my literary craft and literary theories, and my goals as an aspiring author. In Blender, you not only had to model everything by hand (via a mouse on 2D screen in a 3D rotating digital realm), you also had to create environments, light sources, materials and textures. Each image was a painstaking process requiring continuous effort and patience as images, scenes, and worlds you created "rendered," taking hours, sometimes over a day on an older computer. I participated in hundreds of Weekend Challenges, and I used these experiences to deepen and nurture my visual artistry and my ability to convey ideas without words. Often, I sought to attain "natural media" effects in these digital works, bringing them closer to more traditional-looking art. That, too, took much time. In 2020, I stepped away from Blender to refocus more energies on my literary career. It was also the year my mother, Jeannette, passed away. My Blender works have been featured in various books, magazines, and exhibits around the world, and I have tried to pass on some of my experiential knowledge in the form of an "image checklist for artists" below.

Digital art links:

• Main Menu
• ArtStation Portfolio
• Digital Art, Experiments, Studies (2003 - 2020)
• Image Search (title, theme, or keyword):
  
• Some past digital project highlights (to 2015)

Music

Music @ SoundCloud: my musical works (2012-present; newer/more selective)

Music @ Reverb Nation: my musical works (2012-present; cumulative)

Other Creations of Mine...

• Image Checklist for Artists (free PDF guide)
• Phototopias - Digital Photography (2008)
• Thrall.org (site, searches, guides with colleagues, some databases, more)

Thank you for your interest in my creations, Robert

>> Follow me on AllPoetry / Instagram / Twitter