A native Montanan now teaching in a small private college in Minnesota, I find myself thinking more about the meaningfulness of life than I used to. Poetry is a way for me to process the subconscious threads that run deeper than I often care to think.

When I awake at 4:00 a.m. with a poem's arrival, I am forced out of the covers to put it onto paper. A naturalist at heart, poetry seems to tie into some aspect of the physical world for me, but the symbolic is nearly always present inside the meanings and the rhythms of the lines.

I am married to my one true love for nearly 30 years, father of four, and grandfather of two (so far). I am also an avid reader, a life-long student, a farmer/rancher, and a motorcyclist who still rebels at the necessity of helmets (if I were really safety minded, would I even be riding a two wheeled speeder without airbags or bumpers?). Oh...and since I live in the land of 10,000 lakes, I am trying to learn to catch walleye. No success to date.