The Boy Who Looked Up

Movin' right along! For this new post, I'm sharing a peek at one of the long-form poems in the book which spreads out over several pages, and reads like a Dr. Seuss-ish short story nestled within the shorter one-pager and two-pager poems.

The spark of inspiration for this story came unexpectedly when a friend of mine, author & film critic-extraordinaire Jeffrey Overstreet (who recently invited me onto his blog for an online conversation about the film SONG OF THE SEA, which you can read here), posted on Facebook a short video he took one day, pointing his camera up while walking under a beautiful canopy of trees on Seattle Pacific University’s campus where he works, with a caption including "I can't help looking up as I walk."

Something told me there was an idea for a poem there, and eventually out of thoughts & doodles in the sketchbook there emerged a young boy who spent all day with his neck cradled back and looking up at the sky. This got me thinking...

...what if his head got stuck that way?  And what impact would this have on his life and the lives of others around him?  Hmmm....

Thus was born a poetic tale called The Boy Who Looked Up, a story that I look forward to sharing with the wider world. For now, here are a few of the illustrations, plus a little Vine that shows a few snaps I took as the drawings were in progress. Most of these drawings were done this past December.

If you've noticed a pattern to these Monday posts, I'm now posting something every two weeks, but may share stuff more frequently when the book is nearly ready to launch. We'll see.

In the meantime, keep looking up and share what you see!