There was another student or two in the building, but most tenants were poor. I believe the first poetry journal I published in was The Southwest Review , out of Ft. Since then I've published many poems in many journals and anthologies, as well as a few collections consisting of my own work. I've also published a little fiction and some critical essays. Not, obviously, for fame and fortune.
Some experiences shape themselves into words and demand to be written down.
Although it's been a long time, I have done other things than teach. I was a cable TV lineman in 1962 and 1964. We dug the holes, put up the poles, climbed them, strung the cable, drank coffee, and took breaks to shoot pool and drink beer. I have clerked in a grocery store, mopped and cleaned a shoe-repair shop and a beauty shop. I worked as a Central Supply orderly at Mt. Zion Medical Center in San Francisco in 1964 and at Newman Memorial Hospital in Emporia, Kansas.