I cannot image a life more rewarding than being a writer: the process of creativity, making something from thoughts & memories, the study of literature, especially poetry, and the people the vocation brings into my life.  I've written so long now I can't remember not being a writer.  I have tried to help other writers along the way by critiquing their work, recommending them for publication, giving workshops & lectures, etc.  I hope I've somehow managed to give as much back as literature has given to me.

Joseph Brodsky on receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature:

"The one who writes a poem writes it above all because verse writing is an extradordinary accelerator of consciousness, of thinking, of comprehending the universe.  Having experienced this acceleration once, one is no longer capable of abandoning the chance to repeat this experience . . ."

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Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Center (also next two pictures), Warren Wilson MFA alums, reading at Park Road Books, and with the man who keeps all this going.

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