Having worked in natural history museums for over two decades, it seems inevitable that paleontology and zoology would find its way into my poetry. My poetry in particular explores the more hidden side of natural history, namely its connection to empire, colonialism, and slavery. A central question addressed by my poems on these topics is how to balance and reconcile our genuine wonder for the natural world with the at times brutal practices used to provide the knowledge underlying that sense of wonder. My poems relating to natural history also draw upon science and its practice to examine humanity’s place within the natural world, particularly by looking at the Earth’s deep past and the species that have come before us and that we now share the planet with.

Much of my work can be found in print journals, such as Ecotone, Poet Lore, Obsidian, and Tahoma Literary Review, but you can read a selection of work found online. The three pictures above highlight some of the museum specimens that appear in my poetry.