​        I have the great honor of serving as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Needham, MA, with my term 2024-2027.  This role has included many workshops, presentations, and classroom visits, as well as organizing for the inclusion of poetry in some official town events, a poetry walk, the annual Needham Open Studios art event, and the first ever "Needham Poems!" showcase.  You can see more information on the official Needham Poet Laureate web page. 
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This page shows poems I wrote for the Town of Needham and town events.  (Find collaborative poems written by groups in programs I facilitated as poet laureate here.)

If Unity Is…
         (presented June 2026, for the celebration of America at 250)

If unity means uniformity,
We do not stand united in origin,
Having entered, tempest-tossed,
From an abundance of stories.
Yet still we are united in yearning to breathe free.
 
If unity means uniformity,
We do not stand united in color,
Having been born, out of the past,
In an abundance of shades.
Yet still we are united in having cried, each of us, at injustice.
 
If unity means uniformity,
We do not stand united in religion,
Nor, for that matter are we united in height,
Or favorite color, the music we enjoy,
Pizza toppings, or the taste of cilantro,
Having delighted in an abundance of perspectives.
Yet still we are united in being endowed with certain unalienable rights.
 
Let us stand, then, unique yet unified,
Not in uniformity, but working in unison
For that more perfect union in which
We value life for our neighbors as well as our families,
We demand liberty for strangers as well as friends,
We pursue happiness not just for ourselves but for each other.
 
When we uphold that patriot dream of liberty and justice for all,
Having learned that abundance embraced is abundance shared,
When we stand not in uniformity but in unity,
Let our beacon dreams guide us forward, from sea to shining sea,
From soul to shining soul.

Home, Needham 2025
        (presented June 2025)
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Each of us is home
To many homes.
The place you’re born
May settle in the heart –
For some, New England’s maple-sweetened hills,
For some, a scene of other trees on other earth.
The place you went to school
May live in you –
Lessons like the slant of sun,
Arrangements of worn desks,
Voices in whatever language
Cradled childhood dreams.
A home may be
The city where you joined someone,
The house where family grew,
The place you came to rest.
A song may carry you like home,
That book that always draws you in,
The face of one who loves you,
Their voice, their touch:
Where you belong.
We carry many homes within us,
Packed like sweaters
Still carrying familiar scents
And whispered memories.
But for all the gathered homes
Folded in our hearts,
Layered, tattered, outgrown, loved,
We share the same home
Here. This home
Comes wrapped in trees,
Displayed on granite ledge,
Tied with a ribbon of river.
We share this home
In checkout lines, familiar streets,
The trill of wrens and shrill of hawks,
The snow, the mud.
We share the fireworks and fire trucks,
Playground and commuter rail,
Parking lots and parks.
And in this shared place
We are home to one another.
Our faces, our voices,
Our fears and joys, frustration and generosity –
Each of us the fabric of each others’ lives:
And each of us is home.