But now I know you're saying "What about the poetry, man? Where does that fit in?" Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, Snyder - the usual suspects. So how was I dragged kicking and screaming out of the Fifties? I snuck into an Art History class my girlfriend was taking with David Shapiro. I showed him some of my poems and he gave me a reading list. Ashbery, Schuyler, O'Hara, Koch. The other usual suspects. Then I took some classes with Tim Liu. He gave me a reading list. Then I took other classes. I received more reading lists. I read more. I wrote more. I got a few degrees. And more reading lists. It's all about reading, I'm telling ya. Somewhere in there: James Tate, James Wright, Mark Strand, Charles Wright, C.K. Williams, Billy Collins, Don Patterson, Matthea Harvey, Sam Truitt, Elaine Equi, David Kirby, Denise Duhamel, Franz Wright, Li Young Lee, Jack Gilbert, Charles Simic, Michael Burkard...there's a lot more. Later I will go into specific detail.