I have always been attracted to strangeness. I suspect that being a little strange myself probably has something to do with it, and perhaps that accounts for my inclination to write poetry about death and dark love. I see life as bittersweet. We are born and we die, and in between, we try to make sense of this strange adventure, in which fairness and love and success are never guaranteed--and in which it is our choice whether or not to make the most of every moment we have.

I welcome you to share you thoughts about life and the world in which we live, as well as your views on poetry about death and love.

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At the age of two I developed a liking for vinegar. When I studied physics, they taught me that light, indeed any electromagnetic radiation, behaved as both a waveform and a particle. It was a strange notion, hence one that took grip of my imagination, and in my contemplative moments I took great pains to conjure up wild images to amalgamate those two concepts into one, as I assumed all physicists could do. But alas, I failed, and in my insecurity concluded that the shortcoming was my own. I confess, I was no more successful in finding a decent looking date for Saturday night, but it was that mental gymnastic of trying to join particle and wave that left an indelible mark. In those early days textbooks in physics described perhaps ten or so elementary particles that were known to humankind. Now, of course, there are particles and strings by the dozens, with the number still growing. In the current wake of scientific progress, the fundamental nature of reality has become correspondingly more complex, and even further removed from our common sense experience of the world to the point where only arcane mathematical equations seem capable of rendering any kind of mental picture of the workings of the universe. I doubt that mathematical equations will ever do justice to the strangeness of life. And by the way, you should know that mathematics was once my favorite subject. Am I being too harsh, or simply too dull-witted?

While science has certainly answered many questions for us, and given us much to be thankful for, including dishwashers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, I cannot help but feel that the deeper scientists probe into the underlying nature of our physical universe, the more puzzling and mysterious it all becomes. Don't get me wrong. I stand in defense of science. It has done much to take us out of the realm of rationalism, superstition, and dogged unreason. Yet, in all the excitement of organizing and manipulating the physical world, science, in my humble opinion, has swept into the gutter some very basic puzzles of life, either dismissing them outright with an impatient gesture of the hand; or cautiously shunting them in the direction of priests, rabbis and monks; or (and this pulls my chain the most), blithely making them all vanish into thin air with a quick, haughty wave of the reductionist's magic wand. Despite our rising mountain of knowledge and amazing technological feats, the most ordinary and everyday phenomena in our world still defy explanation--whether it be the hidden morphic path of a seed growing into a Sitka spruce towering 160 feet above the ground, or a slow-moving caterpillar that transforms into a Monarch butterfly which somehow finds its way from Canada to Mexico in its winter migration. (Just where exactly, may I ask, is the map of North America implanted in the nerve cells of this beast?) I repeat: no mathematical equation will likely ever summarize these natural phenomena.

Perhaps one day, say in a million years, (if we're still around), science will have solved all the mysteries that surround us. I doubt that day will ever come, but in the meantime, the strangeness of life continues to tantalize. Our existence evolved on a planet that began as little more than molten rock and hot gases. Just how life managed to get a foothold on this ball of rock boggles my mind. Was life inevitable? Or merely a wonderful accident? Well, I prefer to regard life as a kind of miracle--an event against all odds. At least until proven otherwise. The world is strange. That's what it boils down to. But then, that view coming from someone like me shouldn't be much of a surprise. And, yes, if you've been wondering, I confess complete ignorance of the force behind it all.

So then, what the devil exactly does this long ramble have to do with the purpose of this website? Well, here it is in a nutshell. The Xenowave logo was inspired by the paradox of light. It's symbolic of that mysterious vortex out of which life and creativity flows. What's found here on this site is intended to stimulate the imagination, stir thought, and enliven feelings close to the heart. Xenowave makes no excuses for its healthy dose of attitude, and I offer no final answers.

At Xenowave, the strangeness, the darkness, and the beauty of life that surrounds each and everyone of us is unabashedly embraced, whether in poetry about death and dark love, or in other more hopeful forms of creative human expression.