About me

• How honest can we be? How much can we connect?

  I remember taking my first steps. I remember the Hershey bar behind my dad with out-stretched hands.

  I remember the look on his face when he coaxed me.

  I remember swinging my legs hard in spite of the body cast.

  The world that I find myself in is a world full of poetry. I make my living as a journalist. I write a weekly column called The Joy of Life. I aim to share genuine “Aha!” moments each time I write.

  I believe in community-minded journalism. I am a features editor at a small newspaper, but it’s amazing how much you can reach from wherever you are. That is a personal revelation that I hope to share with my son as he grows.

  From my little place in the world, I’ve been able to pick the brains of people I idolized as a kid: Pete Seeger, Aimee Mann, Wynton Marsalis, Buddy Guy and Al Green to name a few.

  I believe poetry and music are some of the real-life miracles that we can accomplish. So I reach out to artists like Jane Hirshfield, Coleman Barks, Dara Wier and Charles Simic whenever I get the chance.

  I am a contributing editor to Now Culture literary magazine (nowculture.com) and this is another way that I can document palpable magic.

  With this blog I’d like to share all of the little inspired moments I find–mine and the wiser ones.

Standard blurb: Gene’s weekly newspaper column, The Joy of Life, has a circulation of more than 2 million. He is an entertainment journalist who was awarded first place in Arts and Entertainment writing by the New Jersey Press Association. He is also a columnist for the Haiku Society of America and blogger for the Haiku Foundation. His articles have appeared in more than 40 newspapers. His poetry publishing credits include: Tight, Graven Images, Candlestones, Double Room, a broadside by Joshua Beckman’s 811 Books, Tiferet Journal, Frogpond Journal, Word Salad, The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Anthology, Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades, Disco Prairie Social Aid & Pleasure Club by Factory Hollow Press, Paper Wasp, Chrysanthemum, A Handful of Stones, Prune Juice Journal of Senryu & Kyoka and the Irish Haiku Society’s Shamrock Haiku Journal. His chapbook, Twitter Poems and Other Small Gems, was published by The World Class Poetry Blog.