I'm a poet with two useless masters degrees. I was a teacher for years. I've been homeless for years. I like to build things. I like to golf and fish. I'm a closet scientist. Good food and good drink keep me from running a hose from the exhaust pipe to the window of my car. I wish my gray hair would come in faster. I have a black ball cap that serves as my binky. All I need is one mic.

For the last three years, I've been itinerant, travelling around the country, supporting myself with writing fellowships and grants, living in small artist communities in New Hampshire, New Mexico, Virginia, New York, Minnesota, sometimes housesitting or cat-sitting in Oregon, Ireland, Arizona.

I've grown weary of the indigent bohemian lifestyle and have decided to come back home to Seattle, at least for while. Trying to publish a book of poems, finishing a novel, trying to teach myself how to make woodcuts.

Writing, making spreadsheets, teasing apart the fundamental threads of things, braggadocio, irony, sincerity, ill flows, mixing classic cocktails well, living out of a suitcase, cooking, failing better, pursuing things I suck at, playing devil's advocate, nihilism, wooing, contemplating the Lovecraftian horrors that lie in wait with a sense of equanimity, tinkering with computers, Dungeons and Dragons, organizing the perfect Star Trek TNG marathon, memorizing poetry, party games, being honest about my failings as a human, being a human.

Human, male, approx 30 yo, 5'11, non-threatening, humble origins, over-educated, introvert, drink in hand, dresses like a solipsist, nice fucking smile, hilarious, listens well, not a fan of small talk, not afraid of opening a variety of worm cans, failure to grasp current pop-cultural references, still listening to mid-nineties, east-coast hip-hop.

Authors:
Current: Edward St. Aubyn, Jack Gilbert, Cervantes.
All-time: Borges, Kafka, DFW, Transtromer, George Saunders, Daniel Dennett, Hitchens, Dawkins, Wallace Stevens, Shakespeare, Mary Karr, Cheever, Flannery O'Connor, Checkhov, Frank Miller, Asimov, Poe, Nicholson Baker.

Movies/TV:
Current: The Master, Game of Thrones, Louie
All-time: Network, The Wire, Empire Strikes Back, Big Lebowski, 5th Element, Deadwood, The Shining, Twin Peaks, Star Trek TNG, Seinfeld, Curb your Enthusiasm, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Maltese Falcon, Alien, Chinatown, anything Pixar, Doctor Who.
--Directors: Coen Brothers, The Andersons (P.T. and Wes), Almodovar, Kurosawa, Tarantino, Miyazaki, Kubrick, Scorsese.

Music:
Current: A-1, Hopsin, Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, Die Antwoord.
All-time: Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Wu-Tang, Aesop Rock, Regina Spektor, Bad Religion, Nina Simone, Dylan, Beatles, Cannonball Adderley, Boards of Canada, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Joanna Newsom, Tom Waits.

Games (I used to play games, of all sorts, a lot more than I do now; they still hold a special place in my personal cosmology): Megaman 2, Chrono Trigger, Ico, Star Control 2, Dominion, Half-Life, Bananagrams, Chess, Microscope RPG, DnD, King of Tokyo, Diplomacy.

Food/drink:
Current: Sashimi, Banh mi, sazeracs, manhattans.
All-time: artichoke risotto, neapolitan pizza, seared ahi, pickled green beans, greek yogurt, Talenti salted caramel gelato, Pacifico, Campari, Pendleton Canadian whiskey, Bulleit Rye.

Not a fan of desert island hypotheticals. I need too many things. The first that come to mind: music, good food, poetry, the woods, art, the city, love, sex, adventure, twenty-sided dice, books on philosophy of mind, nice cookware, time spent with amazing humans.

The nothingness at the heart of existence, how Triscuits are made, if that writing fellowship has announced winners yet, what the hell am I going to do with my life, the illusion of the Cartesian theater, what delicious thing we are going to eat tonight, God I need to finish reading Don Quixote.

At home, working on my novel, at a bar enjoying a drink and conversation with friends. Dancing? I wish I was dancing, but I'm probably not drunk enough, I'm probably cooking dinner or making hip-hop beats. I haven't lived on a weekday/weekend schedule since I quit my teaching job. The days of the week are meaningless to me. Tuesday might as well be Friday.

I'm sad. I'm trying to be okay with being sad. Poetry is the most stable of my passions. I think about giving it up all the time. I think about giving everything up. It's incredibly exciting.

I seem like a valuable human worth spending a few of your precious and limited moments with. If you appreciate that I end sentences with prepositions, having been an English teacher.