I am back in Brooklyn this week, hanging out with my daughter and son-in-law. I’m spending my time prepping a poetry manuscript and really just wandering.

Ultimately, I think I’m trying to center myself after the death of my brother, Paul, last week.

I am a wanderer by nature. The best part of traveling for me is just pointing my feet in one direction and seeing what shows up. Brooklyn is a great place for that. In my early 20s, when I lived in Chicago, it was something I did on a regular basis: ride the El to a stop, get off, and just look around. It is not something you can really do in a smaller city like St. Paul-Minneapolis, but Chicago and NYC are made for it.