Dear Marionette, pull the strings of your memory!  Tell us about yourself and how many Tomes your quill has masterfully inked.

"While I have always done so in my head the pen didn't really hit the paper until 2017, since then I would venture to say I have written at least two thousand poems, many sit awaiting touch ups or rewrites, although most likely they'll turn to dust before either happens." 

Pluck your strings like a harpist in trance and reveal unto us the title of your latest opus—the very quill-scribed creation that skirts the precipice of imagination and madness!  And whence came the  electrician that wired your literary bulb? What whispers of chaos birthed such prose?

“Awfully big words there, Shakespeare! Currently, I have about four projects on the table that I’m actively working on. My most recent publication is ‘Leaving Eden’, and one of my upcoming poetry collections is tentatively titled ‘Taming the Beast’.” 

Do your wooden sinews harbor peculiar rituals, as your quill--inked in inspiration--dances upon the parchment of your future masterpiece?

“I suppose if I really analyzed it, I would find the triggers that cause the eruption of words and ideas. If I hear a phrase or perhaps the emotion a certain song invokes in me that suits my writing style, the only ritual I have is once it’s arrived in my head. I’ve got maybe half an hour to get started, or it fades and is lost.” 

 String freshly snipped, hinges screeching and wood creaking I ponder:  What ink-stained tales' puppeteer the strings of your imagination?  Whose words influence your quill?  Speak, fellow marionette of mind-molding tales--what authors inspire you?

“Oddly enough, I don’t and never have read poetry. I do read that of my peers in the Marionette family, but that has only come about in the last year or so. Mine is not an ability learned, but more an ability given by whatever forces that give flight to imagination. My inspiration has and always will come from music and the brilliant lyricists of our age—Cobain, Lanegan, and Morrison, to name a few. Stress and uncertainty tend to bring about the desire to create, but what I create comes from the music that reaches my soul and touches my heart.” 

 What are you currently spinning with your golden thread?

A walk down a melancholy path that leads to the twilight of sorrow.

Do you have any advice for future Marionette's wishing to put quill to parchment?

“The only advice I can truly offer is this: Feel it, write it. If it’s honest and pure, then it’s good. Structure and the rest will follow on their own.” 

Embrace your tangled threads and spill the milk on the best advice you have ever heard.

“Straight up advice came from the first musician to recorded a song using my words—a brilliant gentleman from Philadelphia named Bill Meecham. Initially, my focus was solely on content; I had no inkling about syllable counts or maintaining flow. Advice and admonishment often wear different hats but share the same cloak. Bill’s advice was straightforward: ‘Damnit, Mike, I have to sing this stuff. Can you at least keep your sentences the same length?’” 

Now,  dear masterless marionette, what does the future hold for your quill?

“I can’t control opinions, nor can I dictate future publication or recording of my work. However, I do know that the words keep flowing, and they will find their way onto paper.”