I am a self-taught poet, tutored by poet friends, others’ poems, workshops and books on writing poetry. I use a form like haiku or sonnet to shape my work. Since 2012 I have largely written iambic pentameter blank verse. I started writing short verse forms in about 2007.
I don’t know the source of the sudden urge to write poems after 50 years of legal writing. The urge is real, compelling. I enjoy the creative process and love my work. It's most gratifying when one of my poems touches someone else. I am of an age when I can “no longer don the youthful disregard of death,” to quote one of my poems. My age gives me a perspective to write poems I could not have contemplated 20 years ago. I suspect I write to exorcise some unknown demon(s).
My writing is informed by my background. I’ve been married for almost 60 years to a wonderful supportive woman, whose talent in the visual arts has always stunned and mystified me. With our three children and five grandchildren, we are a close, if very extended, family.
For health, recreation and inspiration. I take long walks every morning on our quiet rural dirt roads, practice yoga, and meditate. I have traveled extensively in North and South America and western Europe, have camped, hiked, fished, hunted, skied, sailed, raced bicycles and hold a commercial pilot's license. I love classical music (I’ve studied Bach on the piano), theater, photography and other visual arts.
Professionally, I practiced law for 55 years, 7 as a public prosecutor, and served as a state legislator and on local, state, and national public service boards. I am now retired, leaving me time to devote to this new craft I love and am learning.
My worldview is Buddhist.
