Volume 1: Shift Key: Adjusting to Life's Changes with Hope... Through Poetry, Haiku, and Commentary (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781545144817)

Poet, Writer, US Army (Retired) I dreamed of writing when I was a youngster. I was sexually abused as a child from age 8 to 12 or so. I learned about this for the first time when I was 50 years old. So, as a boy, reading was the only place I had to go. Reading and writing poetry became a big part of my life early on and remain so. Tom Swift Jr. and the Hardy Boys opened the door to Edna St. Vincent Millay, mysteries by John Dickson Carr, sci-fi by Heinlein, histories by Barbara Tuchman; reading everything from Sherlock Holmes to The Fire Next Time, etc. And that is only the tip of my book reading iceberg. My plans are not my own. Either college wasn't ready for me or I wasn't ready for college. Vietnam put my life on hold in 1965 when I beat the draft and enlisted in the Army. After a tour in Vietnam in 1967-68, I returned to Ft. Meade, MD and in 1969, I decided to go to school in New York City. During my second year at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC, my circumstances became very complicated. So much so, that I chose to return to what I knew. I was back in the Army. While serving in the Army, my love affair with writing and reading continued. I loved being overseas most of all; country after country, assignment after fascinating assignment, e.g., language analyst, basic training drill sergeant, small unit tactics (Cavalry) instructor, Pershing operations sergeant, to name a few. I also served as a Vietnamese, Cambodian, and German linguist with tours in Vietnam, Thailand, and Germany. While on assignment in Duluth, MN, God for me was no longer an abstraction, an intellectual exercise, or merely the cause of my Jewishness that I could not fully understand. Answers replaced questions. Grace and truth replaced the Law. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is who He has said He is. Jesus, the Messiah, is Lord, as stated and revealed. I retired from the military and continued to write full-time for industry as a technical writer honing my skills. It is apparent that my days in industry are behind me (What could still be ahead of me? God knows.) I'm moving forward to embrace the surprises yet to come. Still reading, still writing, still somewhat melancholy, but hopeful as God's plans for me continue to unfold. God's best plans and purposes for me are still ahead.