He was educated at the
University of San Francisco,
California State University at Los Angeles, and
San Francisco State University. He is currently retired from teaching at
Cabrillo College. He has published five collections of poetry, most recently
Of This World; New and Selected Poems (
Copper Canyon Press, 2008) and
Country of Light (
Copper Canyon Press, 2004). His work earned a Pushcart Prize in 2000 and has been featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. He was also a finalist for the Northern California Book Critics Award in 2005 and a year later was selected for a
Witter Bynner Fellowship in poetry from the Library of Congress. His poetry articulates a voyage through places and times and voices, often sifting through the details of daily life, searching for miracles (“Inside the pear there’s a paradise we will never know, our only hint the sweetness of its taste.” - Comice,
Below Cold Mountain). He divides his time between his home in
Santa Cruz, California, and a cabin in the Sierra Nevada. ==Awards==