And here is my second. Alright, so I've been walking an awful lot lately and thinking about poetry, as opposed to American Idol which I have been known to do. Previously, I was reading a biography of a rather well known poet who has been dead for a long time and found myself drawn to a chapter on his influences, so I started thinking about my own influences. I'd rather start to list my own than to let someone else assign them to me at a much later date.

First and foremost: Franklin W. Dixon. That's the right, the guy who wrote the Hardy Boys series. I very much doubt I would ever have become interested in reading anything had it not been for the The Hooded Hawk Mystery or The Twisted Claw. Seriously. I'm just as surprised that I wrote that as you are reading it.

Then there's the Oscar Williams anthology of major american poets or whatever it was. A great little paperback where I found e.e. cummings. cummings was the first poet where I said "good Christ, would you look at that!" I would say that cummings is the first actual poet to ever have any sort of influence on me, although I do recall trying to write some Shel Silverstein-type things in third grade.

Later on perhaps I will add some more. I know that you cannot wait.