David J. Bauman

For some reason, this old video recording is getting tons of hits today. I checked it out and realized that the recording was so poor (it was over a dozen years ago) that I had marked it private. Hey, nobody’s perfect. We need an “Oh No” now and then to remind us perhaps. So here it is again, blemishes and all. David Reads “Oh No,” by Robert Creeley

I’m looking forward to this book and wanted to share it with you. I follow Mitch Noobis and enjoying his poetry. Ask Micah about Mitch’s basketball poems! If you haven’t read his work yet, here’s a sample from Stone Circle Review. If you like it, show him some love and pre-order the book! They Ask Questions “Who was your first love?” theyasked as if love meant morethan the unknown then, butmy…

Ghost Story I’m sharing this again, from last October, because it just captures the mood of this time of the year so well, on a cold morning like this, geese flying south, sitting by the fire, or in my case, the space heater under my desk. Plus, there is some lovely, personal love, pain, and nostalgia involved. Sending you all warm thoughts. Hang in there, take care of yourself and be there for…

Turns out, poetry isn’t my only thing. My bird obsession has increased exponentially since the COVID quarantines. While birding was always a category in my blog, it really wasn’t written about very often. But now, I’ve gotten my very first nature column published and I thought you might enjoy taking a look. Since moving back to central Pennsylvania, I’ve been birding a great deal with my friends…

I want to be proud of those whose shoulders I stood on to get where I am. So, here’s something from this week’s posts over on my other project, Jeff’s Song of the Day. Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen

If you haven’t seen the collaborative poetry chapbook my son Micah and I wrote, we’d be super happy if you took a look at it here. That link will give you a preview and links to more information, including how to get a copy for yourself. He and I have been continuing to work together on poems, and projects both together and separately. In the not too distant future we hope to be able to tell you…

Nights in White Satin

In the spring of 2020, Watershed Review published my poem “Nearby There Is a Field,” along with “Emergency Room,” and “Echo.” WR continues to publish beautiful work online, including this little gem by Amorak Huey in the fall of 2023: This season, poet Marjorie Maddox is been hosting a four-minute radio show on WPSU, focusing on Pennsylvania poets. Every Monday a new episode of Poetry Moment…

I’ve been thinking about my publication successes of 2023. Not as many as I might have wanted, but definitely more than I remembered. I’ve been working on some new pieces, and pretty much have cleared off the submission slate, so I’m ready to start sending work out again. I am particularly proud to have a poem in issue 39.1 of the print journal The MacGuffin. Much like the way I enjoy audio and…

Time to start updating my publications for the year. I'm tired, but kinda proud.

I’ve been meaning to post about some of my 2023 publications, but you know: Life and stuff. But everyone has life and stuff. I shall try not to use the obvious as an excuse. Already I feel tempted to turn this into a New Year’s resolution, and I totally would if I were the type of person who made New Year’s resolutions. * * * In fairness to myself, it’s been a weird year. In some ways a hard…

Float On

I just wanted to let you know about another project I’m working on. I have a brother who is suffering from the memory thief of dementia. We hadn’t heard from him in some time. His last emails were getting more and more confusing, and he wasn’t returning our calls. We had gotten used to him becoming more eccentric in recent years. That’s how we thought of it. Turns out, it wasn’t a choice on his…

I am excited to share with you a poem published in this spring’s edition of Crab Creek Review. If you’re a fan of Robert Lowell, you might see a bit of influence there from his poem “Skunk Hour,” which he dedicated to Elizabeth Bishop. It’s not just the appearance of the little striped “critters,” but I realized after writing it that there was something about coming to terms with a new reality,…

As we continue through April and national poetry month, I can happily report that I got the chance to do a reading and impromptu craft talk at my new library this weekend. We were holding an author’s fair (planned out before my arrival on the job last month) and a reading slot opened up. I even sold a copy of Mapping the Valley, the collaborative project with my son Micah, which you can learn…

My son Micah had a poem published recently in Anti-Heroin Chic. I am super proud of him, of course. Check it out!

My dad turns 90 years old tomorrow and we are planning a surprise party, well, we’re going for mild surprise. Nobody will be jumping out from behind furniture and shouting “SURPRISE!” We don’t want it to be his last birthday. He and I haven’t always gotten along. When I was 16 I ran away from home. But instead of telling you about all of that, I’d rather direct you to a poem that was just…