I have spent most of my life as an algebra tutor but made a very late-life change and earned a PhD in English (creative writing, poetry) from the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers--an excellent program, by the way. I owe a lot of my growth as a poet to Angela Ball, Adam Clay, and Rebecca Morgan Frank, all wonderful poets with multiple, published collections. 

My interest in poetry was first sparked by my high school poetry textbook Sound and Sense which was edited by Lawrence Perrine and included English-language poetry from the pre-Renaissance period up through the first half of the 20th century.  It is to this book that I attribute my love of writing in form. 

Even though ballads are not considered "serious" poetry, I love writing them.  My poetry collection, Red Beast Slouching contains three ballads, set in Alaska, Georgia, andmi Alabama. One of my long-term goals as a poet is to write ballads set in all 50 American states--only 47 more states to go!

One of the advantages of getting older, for me at least, is that I have acquired a deeper love of nature. I owe it to Artemis, the first dog that was mine and not a family dog. A cocker spaniel, I bought her after I was mugged, thinking a dog would give me a sense of security--even though she was 10 weeks old at the time and not at all fierce.  She had apparently been raised in a puppy mill and had never been outside before. I witnessed her delight at seeing her first butterfly and her joy awakened a love of nature in me. I took her with me to a dog beach--she hated it--and to the Everglades, which she also didn't like.  She was a 5-star hotel dog! 

Some of my poems do reflect that love of nature, especially a few written in Sapphic stanzas. 

The collection also contains sonnets, villanelles--I love writing villanelles--and Sapphic stanzas, among others. Also, about one-third of the poems in this collection have been written in free verse.  I have also experimented with Japanese forms like haiku, tanka, and haibun.

The subject matter of my poems has been influenced by the almost three years I spent teaching at a school serving mostly poor and minority students, many of whom were immigrants. There, I had a chance to observe the alienating school environment that poor students experience as well as the way kids of limited means are subjected to military recruitment in a way that wealthier students are not. On the other hand, kids loved the Jr ROTC program because it provided an oasis of security and calm and taught them thngs they needed to know to help them get along in life. I had the highest regard for the instructors and thought they were wonderful. 

Recurrent themes in Woman on Canvas include the often unsuccessful search for religious belief, the effects of war that endure long after peace treaties have been signed, and the deleterious effects of family breakdown on both children and the single parent raising them. 

The book should be in print within a few months.