I’ve been luckily enough to study with Thomas Lux, Dorriane Laux, Joseph Millar, Carol Ann Duffy (Poet Laureate of Great Britain), and others. And because I’m somewhat of a workshop and open mic junkie, I started a monthly critique group in Atlanta and a writers' night out in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’m also lucky that my poetry collection, Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press, 2014) has been called “a courageous, deeply human book” and my poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Poetry East, Atticus Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology V: Georgia (Texas Review Press), and many other places. 

Two Fine Coaches, 40 Years Later
    — as spoken by the quarterback, class of 1973

Mert Wallace taught boys to become good men. I remember him pulling me aside, talking about the season’s final football game. It was a Monday. The next day as I got ready for school, Mom told me he died. My toast tasted like plywood. I dumped it in the sink. It was a tough week for all: the team, his history students, teachers, the community. His funeral was Friday, game day. We started playing with hearts and legs heavy as boulders… trailed by three touchdowns at the half. Charlie Russian, the other team’s coach, came to our locker room and said, You know boys, Mert is watching. We exploded in the second half and blew Charlie’s team away.