This piece featured on Emerging Civil War in August 2024 shares my experience as the National Park Service Artist in Residence at Manassas National Battlefield Park. The Artist in Residence Program sponsored by the National Park Service offers a wide variety of artists the opportunity to live and work on the National Park Service grounds and bring to the community their experiences through their artistic works. These programs offer artists the opportunity to experience living

This essay featured on Emerging Civil War in June 2025 examines the forgotten voices of the Civil War, those whose stories were lost to history. The premise of my Civil War poetry is that not everyone who experienced the Civil War made it into the history books. What of all those unknowns? Who were they? What happened to them? Of course, I could not give them a name or a face; however, I could provide them with a voice, a voice to tell their story through the rhyme and narrat

This article featured on Emerging Civil War in January 2026 explores how the tragic story of the Oates brothers at Gettysburg inspired my poem "My Brother Jacob." The poem My Brother Jacob describes two brothers who joined the Confederacy at the onset of the Civil War and fought at the battle of Gettysburg. The poem follows the journey of Caleb and his younger brother, Jacob. They fought battle after battle together and somehow survived until their shared journey ended for on

Ryan Mascilak’s musical interpretation of “Under the Dogwood Tree” brings an emotional depth to my words I never imagined possible If you haven’t experienced how music can transform historical poetry, listen to this piece and prepare to be moved. Hearing my poem come alive through his talented ensemble reminds me why artistic collaborations across time are so powerful.