was practicing a jump at a little ice rink near our house when he was a kid. What kinds of books did you read while you were a little boy/little girl? I mostly loved the Hardy Boys, or Enid Blyton if you were willing to let me help you with that dang Latin! What did you do as a child that would get you in trouble? Well, as soon as I started school I was told to stop climbing the apple tree in the front yard, because it was getting low enough that I could do so without falling. Also I tried to fly off the roof once because I thought I could fly and, well, we all know where that got me. What did you want to be when you grew up? Well, a veterinarian. Except I didn't want to take the required pre-veterinary courses, so it never happened. I also wanted to be a rock star, so, again, never happened. I didn't dream of being a poet, but I did have a poem in my 3rd grade book I read to the class. A few people noticed, but I guess I was too shy to keep going. Did you want to have a career? I always thought the goal was to get a job at the local factory. My dad had been an engineer for the railroad and there was the thought of that sort of work for me. What was your favourite cartoon/film/book as a child? My favourite movie was The Parent Trap, which I watched over and over for the next 5 years. My favourite book was Enid Blyton's Jabberwocky and her other stories about St. Clare's. I loved the series about three brothers and their friend, and then I read more about them in some book called, I think, My Brothers Three. What did you eat for dinner in your house? Pizza. Oh yes. What was your favourite food as a child? My grandmother's chicken and dumplings. It's pretty bland and not much like chicken and dumplings at all, but it had this mysterious gravy and so it was just wonderful. What was your favourite day of the week as a child? I liked Thursday because I got to wear a different color every day of the week. And there were candy bars in the middle of the week, too, which I didn't have to share with anyone. Do you have an anecdote from when you were a little boy/girl? I told my mother I had eaten something that I shouldn't have one day and I could never, ever eat ever again. So, I didn't get to eat anything with chocolate in it, ever, for like a year. In this long hallway in my parent's house, I decided I needed to sit and think and think and think. And think. And it came out that way - I found myself in this long hallway I'd never seen before and I thought, and thought and thought and thought about the chocolate I could never, ever, ever, ever, ever eat. What were your most favourite toys as a child? My Fisher Price electric trains. I bought them at a yard sale a few summers ago and took them home with me. I don't know why but I didn't go back for them. What was your favorite TV show as a child? I don't think I have a favorite, but I liked Tom and Jerry and my favorite TV show when I was small was about a boy and his friend who played drums. But there were no real drums so it was also called Snafu Drum. This is too hard to explain. Which child's book do you think deserves to be re-made for adults and the twenty-first century? Well, I never saw the book before so I can't say. What other books or films have you not read or seen but should read/watch? Oh, if only I had read Charlotte's Web or Anne of Green Gables as a child. What book do you still think about from when you were a child? I really wish I had never found Charlotte's Web and I always wish I'd read Shakespeare but I don't remember anything about it. The first real book I can remember is Dracula's Daughter by Whitman, which seems like a terrible story for a four year old to be reading. What other films/shows/television shows do you find you return to regularly? There is no other. Are there books which have influenced you as a writer? I think I read, and re-read, Little House on the Prairie around the time I wrote this. That book has always stuck with me. Are there writers you would like to meet, and why? I was too busy reading books to pay much attention to anything I said. No comment. What was the last song you heard on the radio? I wasn't really listening to the radio much, so I have no clue. But the tune I most like from the past century is this dancey version of the Titanic song. Do you know it? I like chocolate and don't know that my tastes have changed much over the years. I have a chocolate craving once in a while that sometimes results in a chocolate purchase. But nothing to really think about or that really affects my daily diet. I guess I should put on my blinders and eat all the chocolate and candy I can for the years ahead. But that's the old me and the old me is tired of this particular food. What's the last thing you ate and thought 'I should have a real cup of coffee for this?' Coffee. It's still early, but I'm not really in the mood for anything more than the coffee I had with my breakfast. We are about to get in the car to go to a family dinner so that's all I have. Wednesday, April 26, 2006 My first review is for Lizzie Kauffman's "A Few Flowers for My Mother" book review in the April 6th edition of "The Oregonian." It's the review by Susan Denton in "My Favorite Plays." I have had a hard time reading other people's poems without wanting to write them myself. "A Few Flowers for My Mother" is no exception. The poem is a nice reflection on the love of a mother and the pain of leaving. I can't help but wish that this poem had a little more life, but I am pleased to have read something by this accomplished poet. (I am a poet as well.) The article I wrote about "A Few Flowers for My Mother" has a small mention of the fact that a previous reviewer had some problems with the style of poem. She had problems with something that I cannot get past. What the reviewer doesn't say is that this poem is written by a woman who was born in the 1880's. She uses the standard form of poetry, the standard sentence structure and vocabulary, not the way that women writing poetry use their language today. So, some of the vocabulary, sentence structure, and overall meaning are lost in translation. This is not a bad poem by any means. But, for me, it is lost in the translation from poetry written by a woman who was a child of the 1880's to poetry written by an adult in today's world. For a review that states "I'm not reading poetry very often these days," I must protest to some degree about this article and the reviewer. I have no problem with a poem like this being one of my first introductions to poetry, or my last, for that matter. Lizzie Kauffman is a wonderful poet. Monday, April 24, 2006 When I was growing up, I knew several people whose names meant they had been born on July 1. One of my aunts was named July, but she wasn't born on the first of July. And, my grandmother had a twin sister who was born on the first of July, but she died early in the life of my grandmother. That's all I know about birthdays. I had an interesting reaction from one of the readers of my story on how the poet who lives at the end of the poem "For Gwen" was born. Her comment was that it was interesting how Gwen, her grandmother, wrote so much about her birth date but no birth information was given for that particular poet. I had never given it any thought. It hadn't seemed to be important, and the poet was simply a character in a poem. It seems that the name of the writer is a vital clue to how I should respond. Names can tell us so much. But a name can also be a barrier to our comprehension. We may know that we have met one of a pair of twins, but it's the wrong twin. So, unless we get names for our children that are similar to each other, they will never know about the twin who died. And, if we have to change the name for some reason, it's sad to not recognize a loved one. So, as I worked on "For Gwen," I had a decision to make. I had never met the writer of that poem before. And, I was in a quandary as to what to write. I could decide to try to match the tone and style of the poem with a birth date. I could think of a character for