New Series: Interpreting Joseph Campbell
I am very pleased to announce the beginning of a major new long‑form project: Interpreting Joseph Campbell. This series brings together my long‑standing interest in Campbell’s work on mythology with my own poetic practice, exploring his ideas through a contemporary, interpretive lens.
The series will unfold across multiple volumes, each responding to a specific Campbell text. My aim is to create a poetic companion to his thinking — not a summary or an academic commentary, but a poetic engagement with the ideas, questions, provocations, and mythic structures he explored throughout his life.
Volume 1: Writing The Shadow — Interpreting Joseph Campbell
The first volume in the series, Writing The Shadow, is presented in two parts. It responds to Campbell’s Myths To Live By, a collection of essays drawn from lectures delivered between 1958 and 1971. These essays explore the role of myth in modern life — how ancient stories continue to shape our inner worlds, our cultures, and our sense of meaning.
My poetic response follows Campbell’s journey through these ideas, engaging with them from multiple angles. The poems are not retellings of myth, but reflections on the psychological and symbolic terrain that Campbell mapped so compellingly. I have taken the approach: how would this idea be expressed or reflected today? What might this mean in contemporary terms — in the world we inhabit now?
Volume 2: Following The Gander
Work is already underway on Volume 2, Following The Gander, which responds to Campbell’s The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension. This collection of essays spans several decades of Campbell’s thinking and offers a rich field for poetic interpretation.
As with Volume 1, the poems in Volume 2 will follow the structure of the original work, engaging with its themes of mythic consciousness, symbolic imagination, and the evolution of human meaning‑making.
A Long‑Form Creative Journey
The Interpreting Joseph Campbell series represents a significant new direction in my work. It allows me to explore mythology, psychology, and poetic interpretation in a sustained way, while building a coherent body of work that readers can follow across multiple volumes.
For those who have been reading the individual poems as they appear on my WordPress blog, this series announcement marks the moment when the project steps into its next phase — from exploratory posting to structured publication.
If you would like to follow the poem‑by‑poem development of the series, you can find all posts here:
Interpreting Joseph Campbell — Poem Archive
What Comes Next
Publication details for Writing The Shadow will be announced once final proofs are approved and the production process is complete. Digital and paperback editions will follow.
Updates on Following The Gander will continue to appear on my WordPress blog as the writing progresses.
Stay Connected
If you’d like to follow the development of this series and other upcoming projects, you can find me here:
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