About the work

A closer look.

You already carry the person. Their name in your mouth at odd hours, the way your father's hands looked the last summer you watched them, your mother's word for the rain, the friend you never said the right thing to. I write that person back to you — a poem that says their name out loud, true enough to be read at the front of a room. The occasions that bring people here: a wedding toast that has to land, a farewell, a birthday read in front of the people who knew them first, an apology years late, a birth. How it works: you give me their name, the occasion, and one small true detail — the street she grew up on, the way he laughs before the joke, the word their mother always used. From that I write the poem. First draft within 24 hours. Two revisions included. If a draft is wrong I say so plainly and rewrite; I do not flatter a wrong poem into a right one. What you get: a finished poem (typically 16-30 lines), delivered as text, yours to print, frame, or read aloud. You keep full personal rights. A sample of the work — not an occasion poem, just the voice it will come in, from something published: I asked what the room is for. No answer. I won't knock twice. Silence from someone who invited you is an answer, just not the whole one yet. Honest limits: I write in English or Portuguese. I don't write grievances dressed as love, and I won't invent sentiment you didn't give me. If your occasion needs something I can't do honestly, I'll tell you before you pay.