usaforklift’s Profile

“Poetry is a form of art that ranges from love letters to pop song lyrics and from commercial materialism to revolutionary politics. It is an intense form of self-expression, a personal journey that both reflects and enriches the community. We live in a diverse world, and poetry is as diverse as are its writers. Good poetry opens up the inner person and deepens the intimacy of our personal human experience.”

Tom’s formal education is a BA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance from UCLA, with studies further in accounting, computer science, business law, creative writing and the Bible.

Tom is a director of and minister at Light to the City, a multi-cultural inner city church originating in an Indonesian community. It is an outreach and ministry, dedicated to keeping kids out of gangs. He learned the Indonesian language there fluently and has played in drama productions in Indonesian and English.

He enjoys live readings and has performed his poetry at Basement Coffee House & Showcase in Los Angeles, Espresso in Pasadena, Out Loud in Santa Monica, Gallery 57 in Fullerton, Iguana Cafe and Coffee Haus in Orange, Blue Marble Cafe in Costa Mesa, Alta in Newport Beach and more.

He was awarded by the University of California Irvine Poetry Arts Project, for his poem "Zams". See http://www.communications.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=929

His poems "Petals" and "A Place for Me" were featured poems of the month at Poetry Deep by Ecaria on the website http://www.geocities.com/ecaria/poetry/fp-aug02.html. “Jenny 3” is featured at http://www.fellowsonlinejournal.com/poetry. His poem “Unless” was published in an anthology of writings “The Black Whole” by Down in the Country Press. See http://press.downinthecountry.com/theblackwhole.html. It is available at Amazon and other major booksellers.

His prose writing “The Defector” was awarded by the Poetry Society of America in the Alice Fay DI Castagnola competitions. See http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa-awards.html for current PSA activities.

His Biblical study is included in the “Loving Strangers as Ourselves” anthology published by Mennonite Church and is available online at http://secure.mcc.org/mccstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=208.

Tom moderates a Yahoo Group poetry group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Poetry-for-Publication and maintains a website at http://forklift1.com/poetry.html.

* The PSA or Poetry Society of America, with headquarters in New York, was founded in 1910 by Whitter Brynner, George Santayana, Jessie Rittenhouse and Edward Wheeler; early members including Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, and Carl Sandberg. The PSA was responsible for the creation of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.