A native of Johnstown, NY, I retired in June 2016 after 29 years of teaching writing and literature at Ripon College in Wisconsin.  I've published six collections of poetry, including Stutter Monk and Second Wind; I also co-edited (with Kate Sontag) the essay anthology After Confession: Poetry as Confession.  Essays, reviews, and individual poems have appeared widely, both in print and online.  In recent years I've spent nearly as much time on photography as poetry.  A gallery of my work is online here: http://instagram.com/doctorjazz​​

Let the Night be the Night
 . . . the little child that peeped in at the door and then drew back and was never seen again.
                                                                                                                            -Whitman
I was the little child who peeped in at the door
and then drew back.  It’s true I was never
seen again, even by myself.  I caught no reflection
of my face in any creek I crossed.  I cast no shadow
except that which was already there, as a chair,
railing, or tree.  When the moon was full across
a bare snowy yard, when the wind smoothed over
any tracks of rabbit or mouse in a few minutes,
nonetheless you might almost think you caught
a glimpse of me some nights, silent as an owl
in flight, gliding from one black tree to the next.
But even then, standing at the cold windowpane
peeping out through parted curtains and frost
fingering the glass in feathery sprays, you know
enough not to follow me wherever I am headed.
You draw back, let the night be the night again.