Age 8: I type popular verse with my dad’s portable typewriter. Then popular science.
Age 13: an old singer teaches me to breathe. I run on the mountains and swim in the sea. And don’t calm down for decades.
Age 16: a friend tells me to read Gerard Manley Hopkins – initiating a permanent state: fragments of poems appear in my head unbidden. They pierce my thought clouds in field and factory. And when not paying attention in educational institutions.
Age 22: married then kids, teach for two dozen years, write a hypertext novel for six years, build websites, databases, enjoy grandkids.
Age 47: a big operation – literally spilling my guts – which then I start to do metaphorically.
Age 74: time to get serious about poetry. What have I been doing all my life?
Age 75: my first collection comes out soon. My wife and family say, awesome, at last, finally, etc.