1966-09-11

BUFFY AAKAASH, (ne Peter Collins) a poet born on this date, grew up around hills and lakes in New Jersey west of New York City. He has lived as a queer man in both big cities and small remote towns throughout the US since then —backwoods Tennessee, Seattle, New York, San Francisco, high desert New Mexico,  and finally, New England.

His poetry has been published in The Poet Magazine, Iris Literary Journal, The Write Launch, Main Street Rag, The North, The Wild Word, Oberon, Sweety Cat Press, and others.

Untangling the Knots, his chapbook of “how to” poems, was published by Kelsay Books in December of 2022, and was recently nominated for the Vermont Poetry Prize.  Buffy was the 2022 recipient of Poetry Society of Vermont’s “Marian Gleason Memorial Award” for his poem, The Beauty Before Us.​

He is on the Executive Board of the Poetry Society of Vermont, and has recently attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts Post Graduate Writers’ Conference, and the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference. His latest book, Corvus, is available at BuffyAakaashPoetry.com.

With years of experience living in intentional communities, a community builder at heart, he has settled into the Green Mountains of Central Vermont, with his dear canine companion, Bodhi (pictured below).