Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
When I was twenty-one I took a job teaching English and coaching football at a small Catholic high school in Southern California. It was intended to be stopgap, temporary employment until I decided what I really wanted to do with my life. Within a year I was hooked on the coaching and found I had the wherewithal to manage a classroom full of high schoolers, and even transmit knowledge. Forty-two years later I retired.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“The Top Out of View” is my latest published work, a book of poems trying to capture the essence of the high school football experience. If you find the idea of poetry and football incongruous, all I can say is if poetry is an effort to capture human authenticity in action, football qualifies as a suitable subject.