As a group of us are looking forward to a gathering in April focused on the renewing power of poetry, I’ve begun to think about how poetry has found its way into my life, and why it has turned out to be so handy, so practical, so useful.  As a practical, native Michigander from a farming family, poetry has often been far from my mind.  In fact, when a wonderful mentor of mine, John Gardner read my book

and said it was a fine policy book on end of life decision-making, but that I was a poet and my poetry should be published, I remember being dismayed at the idea.