I started this project with a question: How do we heal from the wounds that sabotage our lives so that we can experience wonder?
I read biographies and took careful notes. I filled shoeboxes with 3” x 5” notecards. I wrote and rewrote. Something wasn’t working. Finally, I had a break through. An epiphany, if you will.
The way I was posing the question forced me to answer it with an either/or. In this way of thinking, wounds became an experience of life that was always bad and wonder became an experience that was always good. Through writing poem after poem, I learned that posing wounds and wonders against each other is actually harmful.
What I learned through this project is that wounds and wonders are a both/and. Wounds are an invitation to enter into the raw and real of human life and then to wait for the wonder.
The poems in this collection will challenge you to face your wounds and experience wonder. If you want to experience life at its greatest depth these poems can point the way.
I've created an album that sets these poems to music. I love what happens when poems are set to music. I've worked with Bryan Hogg, who we call Dobsy, to compose a 17 track album. I worked with Lewis Brown, a local Denver hip-hop artist as well as Matthew Davis and Jenny Lajoye who are Denver based singer songwriters. The Album was mixed and mastered by David Wilton at Coalesce Studios. Creative consulting on the the title and themes of album was done by Tim Coons. As always, Rob Fleming provided invaluable feedback and encouragement and technical skill to this project.
credits
released January 6, 2017
For the artists that I’ve been fortunate to work with on this project:
Lewis Brown, a.k.a. Proxy, for collaborating on “White apathy”; Matthew Davis for collaborating with me on “How Long Must We Wait?”; Jenny LaJoye for collaborating with me on “Defiance is a dance I’m learning”; Dobsy for late night recording sessions which created the beautiful tunes that go with these poems; Kathryn Nash for her artistic direction and design of the entire project; Aaron Rodriguez for filming the Kickstarter Project video; Nik Brockman for mastering my website and much more; Gregg Nordin for producing the podcasts for this project; Caleb Seeling and Hannah Walker for editing this manuscript; DJ Rosario for his photography; Rob Fleming for help with vocal recordings and David Wilton for mastering the album; Wesley Sam-Bruce and Hilary Griffith for contributing art pieces.
On October 30th, 2017, I was overwhelmed with gratitude when my Kickstarter Project “On Wounds & Wonder” was funded by the generosity of the following people:
Bradley Corrigan, Mary, Keith, and Angela Axelson, Bill and Joan Youmans, Becky Vartabedian, Mary Wuest, Gary and Melana Scofield, Nik, Corrie, and Rilynn Brockman, Katie Van Heest, Kim, Aaron, Amity, and Everest Adamson, Kim and Billie Mesa, Jeff, Shari, Grant, Lauren, Kaitlyn, and Luke Culver, Kate Huckabay, Jenny LaJoye, Whitney Wilson, Courtney Wilkinson, Christy Mulnix, Vincent and Allison Colbert, Mary Mondragon, James, Hilary, Ellsley and Cora Osborne, Elizabeth Ouellette, David Zierden, Loren and Maggie Du Puy, Jannette, Larry, Evan and Ellie McLaughlin, David, Sara, and Hayden Worley, Zach, Mikel, Zoe, Noah, and Ryann Bechtold, Marylou and Mike Cate, Cami, Robbie, and Owen Brainard, Erin, Drew, Jackson, Laila, and Landon Bratspis, David and Julie Burchfield, Julie, Chris, Aiden and Ian Ley, Becca, Luke, Ryder and Max Jay, Julie Huffman, Eric, Amy and Jack Scofield, Candy Thornam, Justin, Sarah, and Cayson Spurlock, Matthew Davis, Tim, Betony, Lucy, Harriet, Beatrice and Arthur Coons, Andy, Mary, Lucy, Rosie, and Mikey Thomas, Peter, Allison, Cohen, Cavin, and June Musser, Rob, Melissa, Colby, and Zachery Rynders, Alice Kim, Curtis Reed, Erika Abdelatif, Bev and Steve Goodier, Gail Wells, Gary and Barb Davidson, Jennifer, Phil, Claire, Ellie, and Kirk Preston, Andrew, Alissa, Keegan, and Maddy Mattson, Laura, Robert, Caroline, and Anna Bliss, Brandon and Georgie Lazarus, Jamie McCarron, Robb Origer and Rachel Bandy, Noah Goodhart, Ashley and Kelly Buell-Shoenman, Jennifer, Mark, James, and Ben Ruehmann, Juliana Batizy-Morley and Grzegorz Zgliczynski, Melanie and Dale Rowlison, Kathryn and Thomas Nash, Dustin Joyce, Anna Reilly, John, Ashley, Gianna, and Amabel Fredrickson, Mike, Jenny, Madison, and Macey McHargue, Jeanette, Shawn, Haakon, Greta, and Henrik Gruenhagen, Geoff, VA, Merritt, and Nora Barber, Tom and Lindsay Airey, Kristyn Wade, Matt Berg, Whitney, Ryan, Eden, and Shiloh Herrmann, Carey, Adrian, Chayton, and Addie Berry, Kim, Billy, Nick, and Alex Mesa, Penny Hanson
and Bill Noyce, Anne Bailey, Teresa and Cliff Faurer, Jennifer, Joseph, Payton, Blake, and Noah Kloeppel, Gustavo, Dominique, Nina and Drew Flores, Alex Ryckman and Molly Reuss and Silas, Rachel, Jason, Natalie, and Kate Stutzman,Nate, Rachel, Emery, and Addie Bullis, AJ Bush, David and Sara Logeman, Mike, Hannah, Sam, and Henry Martin, Nicole, Alex, Harper, Huck, and Hobbes Dow, Gary Dyer, Claire Wuest, Brian, Kassie, Addie, and Mason Mercer, Kristin Johnson, Michael Hanna, Aaron Strumpel, Fran Shockley, Dan, Leslie, Nathaniel, Mollie and Sammie Weinstein, Erica Hoffmeister, John, and Charlie Origer, Jeremy Scott,Ryan, Amanda, Asher, Shepherd, Cedar and Juniper Phillips, Ginny and Steve Axon, Alex Jacobs, Caleb, Angela, Malachi, Acacia, Ameena, and Haleigh Seeling, Joni and Michael Smith, Bob Wuest, Jeanie, Mike, Joseph, Luke, Elias, Zoe, and Isabella Brevoort, Karen and Roger Elbrader, Andy and Gayla Dunning, Matthew, Ashley, Laura, and Emily Franks, Eilidh Lowery, Carol and Stephen, and Nathan Ho, Carrie and Hamid Bahramzadeh, Daniel, Amy, and Sierra Powell, Julie McGuire, Bryan, Alex, Paxton, and Zion Hogg, Kelli Bodnar, Beth, Deuce, Finley, and Lennon Stabler, Rob, Missy, Ian, Anna, and Katie Fleming, Chris and Martha Thompson, Joe and Dana Agne, Amy Puntar, Royce, Sonja, Isaac, and Lily Taylor, Marnie andGaby Gene, Kristy, Shamus, Alexis and Bradley Ortwein, Kevin,Victoria, Elizabeth, and Emilia Reiss, Ben Taussig, Dustin Joyce, Amy, Riley, and Abigail Weeks, Gregg, Janelle, Alexis, Mikkel, Kelaiah, and Elli Nordin, Noah Goodhart, Rebecca Rodriguez and Reyliana, Sharon Grajeda, and RAW Tools, Inc.
Dale is a poet from Denver, Colorado. He’d like to inspire the entire world but finds that inspiring himself and his family
and friends is work enough. He writes and speaks about beauty and misery and his favorite story is the one about how love surprises us in the end. He fails a lot. On his best days, he lives by Samuel Beckett’s motto, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”...more
Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021
