About Me

PERSONAL
I am a Christian poet and I want to publish my poetry here for anyone who loves Jesus and the poetic expression of the many aspects of His Kingdom.

I was born in 1942 and grew up in Chappaqua, New York. I lived a normal childhood in a good family with my mother, father, and older brother. Our father was a pacifist, having been a war correspondent for the Red Cross in World War II, and joined with the Quakers. I went to Quaker Sunday School growing up but don't remember anything from that except the smell of dusty, musty church halls and singing "The Old Rugged Cross." Salvation was not mentioned or ministered and I had no knowledge of God at that time.

I do remember being in the house alone on Christmas Eve when I was twelve (the rest of the family was outside doing something) and listening to a Christmas carol record on the Victrola. When "The First Noel" played, I felt the Spirit of God come over me. I'm well aware of what that was now, but I was totally mystified then, and nothing further came of that.

I remember asking for a Bible a year or two later, and my parents gave me a King James Bible. I started reading it from the beginning and got no further than the third chapter of Genesis. But I am convinced by the above episodes that the heart of a child is ready to receive Salvation.

I went to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and majored in Spanish. I took ROTC because I didn't want to take Phys Ed, the alternative. I served four years in the United States Air Force as an instructor for an Intelligence Data Handling System world-wide. It was a wonderful job, I saw the world, and got in on the ground floor of the world of computers.

That served me well and was the basis for my civilian career as a systems analyst in the financial services sector. As it turned out, that job suited me to a "T" because it employed my creative side in systems design, technical manual and report writing, and teaching; I designed the course material and wrote the training manuals.

Looking back at my life, I see that I was able to support my family and grow in creativity through the jobs I held. After my salvation, that creative bud blossomed in the form of poetry, song writing, and calligraphy,

I met my wife when we were both counselors at a summer camp in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. We married two years later and celebrated our 50th anniversary this year. I knew the day I first saw her that we would marry. We have three wonderful children, now adults, five grandchildren, and, at this point, three great-grandchildren.

MY TESTIMONY
Our daughter was born with a near-fatal condition, a tumor that filled her body cavity and threatened to crush her from within. She required emergency surgery when she was six days old. The doctor told us that she probably wouldn't survive the operation, and gave us a day to prepare ourselves. Realizing the gravity of the situation, we went to the closest church and prayed for the first time in our lives.

The next day, when the doctors opened her up, they found the situation had changed overnight. The hard, bony tumor had turned cystic, filled with fluid.  (The doctors were perplexed because that would not have shown on the X-rays; they went running back to look at the X-rays, thinking they might have operated on the wrong child.) The surgeon called it a miracle.

My wife and I were saved in 1971. As I was going to sleep, I heard the name of Jesus in my ear three times. When I woke up the next morning, I was in a cloud of love and light and warmth. Not knowing what it was, I asked, "What is this?" I heard the reply in my heart - "I am Jesus." When I tried to tell my wife, she told me that Jesus had come into her heart that day.

POETRY
I began writing poetry shortly after that when I was on a business trip, staying in a hotel. As I was going to sleep, a poem came to me in completed form. I turned on the light, wrote the poem down, turned off the light and attempted sleep once more. Again, the same thing happened - another poem. And another. And another. It continued for some time; as I remember, I had ten poems the next morning.

It seems as if my greatest moments of revelation came when I was nodding off to sleep! Now I write in the clear light of day, usually the first thing in the morning during my devotions.

That poetic fountain has since flowed every day in my life. I regard that night as the opening of a well in my spirit through which God delights in expressing Himself and declaring the glories and wonders of His Kingdom.

I have a place in my heart where the words come. I like to say that I don't write the poems, I just write them down. I'm not gifted - I can't do this on my own. But the Spirit of God moves in me and blesses me with these poems.

I envision this site being accessed far into the future; I am hoping that whatever technology is in place at the time will be able to accommodate these settings. I am told that, all other things being equal, this site and Google Docs will be online for eternity!

If you found this page, thank you. It is my prayer that these poems will help to bring you closer to Jesus. Please feel free to share them in any way you wish - they are not copyrighted, and they are free.