Walter E. Harris III (known to fellow poets and friends as “Mankh”) is a writer, small press publisher, editor, and Turtle Islander.

Mankh assembles words into a, presumably, original and unique, yet recognizable order, which, according to popular opinion, makes him a writer, though he also considers himself a recorder or freelance scribe attempting to make sense of the world and himself, as well as to convey words, thoughts, ideas, and emotions from a holistic perspective.

He started writing in elementary school, and over the years and miles and times spent not writing.. the poetry (especially) took hold and shaped his creative urges and thus much of his life. He also finds essays to be a wonderful venue for conveying a sense of holistic synthesis, as Mankh enjoys learning from various worldwide cultures and traditions.

His writings are mostly inspired by Nature, various world mythologies and spiritual pathways, historical and current world situations, listening to music, and his spiritual path which is a combination of Kaballah, Tantra, and Alchemy, as well as the Chinese wisdom-teachings of the Tao Te Ching (Thou Dei Jinn) and I Ching (Ye Jinn).

Some of his strongest poetic influences (and enjoyable reads) are Rumi, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, William Stafford, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Hafiz, and Kabir, as well as the ‘beat’ poets, Japanese haiku, plus a somewhat inexplicable connection with the Muse which includes the nine traditional muses of ancient Greece.

Mankh’s writings aim to reflect truth, uplift or calm the reader, and present information that may help the reader (in some way) with his or her life-journey.

Mankh is resident poet, and a frequent essay columnist, at www.axisoflogic.com, as well  as an associate editor of Long Island Quarterly www.poetrybay.com. His poems, essays, reviews and letters to the editor have been published in:
Outlook Long Island, Long Island Pulse, The Long-Islander, Void Magazine,
www.counterpunch.com , www.ward6review.com , www.poetryvlog.com , Frogpond,         www.simplyhaiku.com , Northport Journal, The Poet’s Art, The Brownstone Poets 2009; Anthology, LIBRe: Long Island Book Review, The Suffolk Standard, Creations Magazine - www.creationsmagazine.com , Poetry Bay - www.poetrybay.com , Paumanok Poets’ News, d’Arts, Book/Mark: A Quarterly Small Press Review, Bards Bi-Monthly, Starting From Paumanok... The Newsletter of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, Sports, Inc., Long Island Sounds: An Anthology of Poetry From Maspeth to Montauk and Beyond, Performance Poets Association Literary Review - http://www.performancepoets.org & www.Newsday.com