My newest book, Mud and Dreams is a series of essays on the poetry and science of living. A work of “motivational poetics” the book speaks directly to the human concerns at the center of our lives.  Mud and Dreams makes poetry, philosophy and psychology accessible and relevant again, by starting not with jargon or form, but with what matters to people.  Most importantly, it is an argument for the goodness of people, for the persistence of kindness, the ubiquitousness of beauty and the irresistible strength of vulnerability. With sensitivity and honesty, Mud and Dreams brings a poet’s imagination to the worlds of business, love, parenthood and life.   It respects the reader with intelligent, embroidered prose, and celebrates people at their best, despite our shortcomings, despite life’s hardships and challenges.

The book is divided into short, but sensitive and honest chapters about love, marriage, children, truth and beauty, paradox, irony, health, old age, permanence, loss, authenticity, injustice, compassion, work, pain and sorrow, kindness, the connections between people, peace, awe, humility, death, a life of play and meaning:  In short, those things that make life worth living.