Below are links to one category of written work, and a few other published and unpublished written works of various forms.
This is a poem I wrote for my mom for her birthday in September 2007, four months after my father – and her husband of 25 years – died from esophageal cancer.
Under this category, I include several selected essays from my time as an opinions columnist at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student newspaper for the University of Arizona.
I hope that we can re-imagine the way we develop our cities in relation to our canals, not just for economic profit, but so that we can reconnect our daily lives to the source of our lives. We must see water for it is – sometimes scarce, sometimes abundant, and despite poor stewardship, enduring.
“Dear Local Government Employee – We need a way to track our grant applications and requests for stimulus dollars in a collaborative environment that will allow easy reporting and documentation. It needs to be easy to use, instant, and error-proof. If you could find the technology, implement it, and train all relevant employees by the end of next week, that would be excellent. Thank you, Your City Manager.”
The need for contact with water is apparent and is already fulfilled in other ways in the desert. People have pools in their backyard, fountains are used for play in some commercial developments, and water parks throughout Phoenix are very busy during the long months of summer in Arizona. But water is rarely used in the urban environment as a form of public, everyday enjoyment and celebration of water.
Members of the city council linger in the council chambers on a Tuesday night, celebrating their decisions and proud of the work they are doing to transform their community. The local news that night, and an editorial the next morning, will congratulate the city council for swift action that enabled the city to maintain service levels while cutting ten percent of the budget. The room has mostly cleared, and the city manager and his staff are gathering their materials, each ready to go home after another long day and late night.