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About 18 years ago I was working outreach with a fantastic group of teenagers in Wayne PA. My fiancé and I were doing what we could to love, empower and instill hope into a bunch of kids who were beyond incredible. My primary focus was putting on concerts that were relevant and safe for local kids to enjoy. It set in motion my next 13 years of doing outreach, speaking, promoting, writing and eventually being ordained. We were going back when this was taken. Our goals were simple but also idealistic, we wanted to love kids where they were at. Yes, it was a Christian ministry but we weren’t concerned with being sin police or converting anyone. We were just trying to bring the message of grace and hope to a world we saw lacking in that. Our work was ready ridiculed, picked apart and even cursed by religious types. Our willingness to accept anyone who wanted to come to our informal meetings made people uneasy. The fact we accepted LGBTQ folks, atheists, agnostics, and those who did not believe, was seen as dangerous. In the end we put on a lot of great shows, we built relationships with amazing kids and almost all of them grew into amazing adults. I don’t know how much I helped that result but they helped me take steps that took me from Wayne PA to Atlanta and all over. My life has changed a lot, I’m no longer doing this kind of work, I don’t believe the way once did, nor am I married anymore, but it was an important chapter for me. I am forever grateful for those years. #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #formerpastor #unconditionallove #outreach #rocknroll #throwback

I did this drawing. I’m not sure why? #drawing #artistsoninstagram #poetsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #tgif #illustration

Last year for my birthday, my girlfriend Mel, got me this lovely book signed by @thisispattismith at an event in Cleveland. I had seen Patti in Cleveland the previous spring, buying a single ticket and sitting by myself, because it was a bucket list moment. You see I have many influences in my life as far as writing goes. Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac, Thomas, Bukowski, etc. but it was Patti Smith who really gripped my soul early and often. My first memory was when an older girl in my neighborhood had a Patti Smith t-shirt, I was memorized every time she wore it. I began to find my way into music at a young age. Discovering punk and new wave a decade or so later than it happened. Patti Smith’s Music was just electrifying to me and such a beautiful voice of hope, love and righteous anger!! Plus I fell@in love of images of her and others in the NY scene, that just was a special time and place. I was just a boy in the 80s who loved to discover new music and soon by the 90s would fall in love with poetry, songwriting and storytelling. I read the Beats, the classics and then dove into punk writers. Patti was my favorite. She still is my favorite. Her words just resonated above the others. I recently wrote a book called The Heart Is A Tree Cut Down Which is a large collection of my latest poems, and my greatest wish is to give Patti Smith a signed copy as I have one of her books signed in@my collection. I even named a poem after her in my book. Anyway, my birthday is October 28th, I’ll be 43 years old and I’ve just come out of the craziest most miserable 3-4 years of my life. If you want to get me a gift, I would love to give my book to Patti Smith. That would be perfect! Have a great Thursday and keep reading, writing, creating and using your voice! #pattismith #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #books #influences #poets #heroes #devotion #love #punkrock #words #poetry

Look at these youngsters! @marcus_koch and @goodnightbuddha at the infamous 1531 Spring Garden St house circa 1998. #philly #oldschool #oldphotos #friends #memories #punkrock #philadelphia

One last thing about New York. For many years I would go to the city from Philly or Harrisburg. Early on it was to read poetry at now long gone spots in the West Village, or to secretly take the Chinatown bus and score drugs, use drugs and return often the same evening. That’s a longer story, that I won’t get into now. I also would go to visit friends, see shows, or just escape my life for a moment. I was never a tourist,I just love New York. Then I met my girlfriend Mel, who like me loves New York. The difference is Mel actually lived there, and for a longtime. She spent over a decade in this magical city. She found her lowest and highest points here. She experienced things I never have by living here yet we also experienced many of the same poor choices and our illnesses beating us up here. It’s the second time I’ve visited with Mel, getting to meet her tribe of eclectic and very New York friends. We all share one thing in common, we are all drunks in recovery, so it’s not hard to find common ground. At any rate, this is how I now get to see New York, through new eyes, through sober eyes and through Mel’s eyes. I took this while in our Uber heading from the East Village apartment we were gratefully staying at and headed to the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn to hear her friend Courtney read. The way she stared out at the river and the bridge just made a perfect portrait of how she misses this city and how she is still very much a part of it. I love that about her. #Newyork #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #words #blackandwhitephotography #brooklyn #manhattan #poetry #poetsofinstagram #eyes #seeing #city #sober #sobriety #memories #perception

This is Mel, in her now famous raincoat and pulling her unplanned but matching bags through the East Village on our way out. Today we left New York after a very beautiful visit and we made the very long, tiresome journey home to Cleveland. It is always bittersweet. It’s safe to say we will be back and we will miss the people terribly until that time. New York means a lot to both of us, for different reasons but now, more and more, for the same ones. I’ve been blessed, through Mel’s introductions, to find such wonderful connections with in the New York community of sober alcoholics. Unlike any community I’ve experienced elsewhere, this is a special place. New York is where Mel found her freedom in sobriety and her tribe. I’m seeing the value in that and I have been accepted by her closest friends. New York was once a place for me to explore and score, but now it feels more like a place to get well and soak in the love of this beautiful community. I’m grateful for Mel and for her willingness to share her New York with me. #writerscommunity #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #eastvillage #newyork #sober #alcoholicsanonymous #sobriety #tribe #love #community #hope #restoration #recovery #friendship #family

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